Dragon tattoos are cool - but what if it were more than just a design? Jordan Hollingsworth, for example, sat completely still with his shirt off in the chair at Permanent Images in Ottawa. Loud music and a black-and-white tiled floor added to the parlor ambience; walls, catalogs and portfolios of tattoo images served as inspiration for clients as tattooed artists concentrated on their permanent projects. For Jordan, 20, the body art on the back of his shoulder has a lot of meaning: both his sister and mother got the same tattoos on the same day. His sister Alyssa, 18, was standing in the room watching her brother get the same Chinese symbols for "family" and "strength" as she had just gotten on the inside of each wrist.
"It was originally just my mom and me who thought about it," said Alyssa. "(Jordan) just jumped on the bandwagon." Both Alyssa and Jordan have other tattoos, and both plan to get more. "It really is very addicting," Alyssa said. Her next project will be a blooming flower on her left foot to match the flower bud she already has on her right. Both of those designs will probably be painful, but Alyssa clearly doesn't mind, as she is willing to admit the addiction has gotten ahold of her. Many people report the same thing, and it's a hard addiction to ignore. If you can take the pain the first time around, chances are you will find yourself back in that same seat in that same parlor soon after.
Cody Keylard, 18, was getting a tattoo on the inside of his forearm in remembrance of his deceased grandfather. Keylard, who already has other tattoos, got his first when (also a dragon) he was just 16. Before this year, minors were able to get body art with parental permission. Now, it is a felony to ink anyone younger than 18, parental permission or not. For some people, tattoos can be used as a cover-up of older art. Aaron Stahley decided to get a tattoo around 2003 of a tribal heart with his then-girlfriend. However, he decided to cover it up with a tattoo of a New Zealand fish hook, a good luck charm for him when he did a 2003-2004 tour of military duty in Iraq. He also has a tattoo on his back. "Depending on where you get it, you can feel different pains in different areas," he said, describing feeling pain in other parts of the body other than where his tattoos were inked. As he closed his eyes and let the tattoo artist work, he winced, forehead furrowed, when the needle first touched a new spot on his skin.
Steve Fox of Newark was in the Pit Studio recently getting a tribal dragon tattoo onto his side
|
to cover up a surgical scar near his rib cage. As apprentice Sarah Clarner prepped Fox for his ink, he seemed a little nervous, but he loved the design he and Clarner came up with. "I'm a firm believer in doing a lot of research before you tattoo someone," she said, saying she spent hours on a computer coming up with exactly the right design for Fox. As Fox laid down on his side for his tattoo, Clarner talked him through exactly what she was doing. "It kind of tickles," he said once Clarner started, though the pain set in after the first hour because the dragon was so detailed. Even though customers are able to express themselves freely on their skin, the workers at the Pit Studio work with them to decide what will be best for the individual - especially when dating couples come in to get tattoos together.
"(The relationship will be over in) three to six months," said tattoo artist Judy Howard. "It's a curse." The employees at the Pit Studio say tattoo work in black and grey and colorful, "new school" tattoos are hot now. Some of the most popular places to get permanent work include customers' sides, forearms and even the inside of their bottom lip. "It's not easy for the artists to do side tattoos because it's an area where the skin moves so much," said Cass. "And now I'm seeing a lot of girls -- young girls -- come in and get tattoos on their sides, some even as a first tattoo. One girl got a dragon on her rip cage, which used to be kind of a big step." But the tattoos people choose to get are as varied as the reasons for getting them, which can be as therapy, to cover scars (the scars must be more than one year old to be properly healed) and older tattoos, for self-expression and as memorials, to name a few.
|
