Historical April–May 2018 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Do you have a tattoo?
It seems that just about every forearm, ankle, or shoulder that I see is adorned with a design, picture, or so-not-pithy saying. What’s happened here? Twenty-five years ago, the only people with tattoos were guys who were in the military or straddling motorcycles! Honestly, Hawkeye doesn’t get this.
I mean, he has always viewed the human body as a living cathedral (that explains him growing up on Hostess Cupcakes and Cokes for breakfast), so why defile it with an artistic whim?
However, the body as an art gallery must have some merit because tattoos have been around for over 6,000 years – remember how Fred Flintstone had Make Pangaea Great Again on his forearm? – and today they are now part of our mainstream culture. Whether it’s buying coffee, having my blood pressure checked, or ordering a Teds Drewes’ Bacon Concrete, chances are I’ll see some art on the server’s skin.
This is perhaps nowhere more apparent than at any sporting event where bare, bulging biceps show multi-colored arrays of designs and pictures. Plus, these are on the athletes’ bodies too. No, dear reader, I am not making this up. Dr. Google says “Tattoos have become more common over the past couple of decades.
A Harris poll in 2012 found that 20% of adults have at least one tattoo, and a Pew Research Center study found that the nearly 40% of people age 18 to 29 have a tattoo. So, if you’re under 30 years of age, you probably nodded yes to my opening question.
I knew a principal who told me that he would never hire a teacher with a visible tattoo.
My guess he has a very small and very old staff.
The most popular tattoo is an arrow, followed by stars, flowers, and words of inspiration.
But I’ve seen tattoos of animals, seashells, and, even, a skull!
I asked a few people about their tattoos, and creativity rules the day. Jan has a koala bear holding onto a piece of bamboo.
She got it at age 56 while on a sailing trip. Patricia acquired her musical note tattoo, the size of a quarter, at age 40 (but it’s not, ahem, visible to the public).
A self-proclaimed avid outdoor enthusiast and backpacker, Chris, chose to get a sun with a compass around it on the inside of his wrist. “I will someday add a mountain and a redwood beneath the sun,” he says. For some folks, tattoos are more than art; they are a way to honor and commemorate. Nina, for example, says, “My fourth tattoo is one that makes me smile.
It is on my wrist, and it is my only tattoo that is visible almost always, intentionally.
The tattoo is of three birds, in various phases of flight; each of them looks different visually, but they are all flying in the same direction.
The three birds symbolize my three children, all unique, all in varying phases of their life, but all connected in a very big way.” Gretchen has a tattoo of a starfish on the inside of her left wrist, symbolizing the wisdom of the boy who walked along the beach saving just one starfish at a time – a reminder that saving the world doesn’t need to happen all at once (she plans to be a teacher). Gretchen says, “The tattoo is also a reminder of my grandfather, Rick Bender, who lived his life and his education career in this way.” Of course, not everyone wants an adorned skin display. Tattoo-less Jenny cites a fear of permanency and fear of needles as reasons not to do so. Frank says, “I have never understood people’s desires to make themselves a billboard. Especially when the message is permanent.” Ever the teacher, Marj says, “The only tattoos I would consider having would address egregious grammar errors, to wit: failure to use the possessive form preceding a gerund.
I could go on with examples, but the tattoo would become disfiguring.” She ain’t wrong, but I’d like to see what emoji she chooses to represent a gerund.
We are besieged with advertisements to convince us to switch our wireless carrier, 15% of Americans move each year, and our president is on wife #3, so Jenny’s tattoo hesitation because of their permanency makes sense.
But what is permanent need not be lasting!
While tattoo art is a big business, so is the art of tattoo removal.
The Huffington Post says that over 60,000 people underwent laser tattoo removal in 2012.
I wonder how many of those tattoo retractions were due to correcting misspellings versus obliterating the names of now past-tense lovers. (By the way, my favorite names for local tattoo removal parlors are Clean Slate and Vanishing Point.) It’s clear that tattoos have become a rite of passage, and just as clearly, I’ve failed that passage. Try as I might, I cannot conjure an image, phrase, or word that I want to brand on my body.
The best I could do is Don’t Blame Me: I Voted for McGovern. What about you?
If you HAD to be tattoo engraved, what would it be???
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April–May 2018.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2018_04.pdf, printed page(s) 12; PDF page(s) 12.
