Multi.Colored—tattooed people, tattoo dreams

I have never used this blog for political commentary before, because it’s not what I’m here to talk about.

However, since we multicolored people are showing the world we can think for ourselves and stand outside the mainstream, I will step up on my soapbox just this once today, and urge California voters to reject Proposition 8.  It’s being supported by a lot of people who don’t think for themselves, and who listen to the worst kinds of scaremongering lies.

Today is the 39th anniversary of my husband’s and my first date.  We’ve been married 36 years.  We believe in marriage and we believe in justice.   Allowing same-sex marriages has changed nothing about “traditional” marriage any place in the world.  Let’s show the bigots in California that it won’t change anything here.

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The other day, I saw a man with a rude, crude tattoo.  Not only was the design not up to junior high art class standards, it was a drawing of a hand making an obscene gesture usually referred to as flipping someone the bird.

I had to wonder why someone would mark himself permanently that way. I’m sure he thought it was a good idea at the time, but now he’s stuck with it, and does he really want to maintain that attitude forever?  I have no idea.  I certainly didn’t put myself at risk by asking.

Of course, I have wondered many times why people marked themselves the way they did.  Blurry ink lines, wretched art work, people’s names that later had to be crossed out or

Image via Wikipedia

covered up, gang symbols, you name it. There’s artwork done by people who look like they could have flunked coloring in kindergarten, designs that leave the viewer wondering what on earth the wearer was thinking, and what the artist must have ingested before picking up the needle.

Don’t these people check the artists out?  Or do they just not care?

And it’s not just bad artwork that leaves me wondering, sometimes.  Some of the calligraphy on gang tattoos is outstanding–why waste talent like that on art that only serves to make its wearer a target for trouble?  Come to think of it, why is the lower-back tattoo called a tramp stamp?

We multicolored people each have our own ideas of what’s appropriate and what’s artistic.  Have you seen anything that made you think someone’s doing his or her best to give multicolored people a bad name?

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Many people get my blog posts via an RSS reader, but not everyone wants to do that.  If you’d like to receive my posts via email, now you can.  Just click on “subscribe by email” in the banner above and fill in your preferences.

I guarantee I do not now and never will use your email address for anything but sending my blog posts.

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Clearly, I need to get my name on more body-art mailing lists. 

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, check out the Body Art Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center this weekend.  It’s 11am to 11pm today, 11am to 8pm tomorrow (Sunday).  One day’s admission is $25, $35 for two days, and kids under 10 get in free with a paying adult.  There is a warning that some areas may not be suitable for children.  Check it out at http://www.bodyartexpo.com

Given the traffic and the cost of parking in that area, I’d strongly recommend taking public transportation if you can.  When we go to events in LA, we park in a large parking garage near one of the subway stops and take the Red Line wherever we need to go.  In the case of the Convention Center, you can transfer to the Blue Line at the 7th Street Transit Center and be let off about a block away from your destination.  One $5 Metro day pass per person should more than cover your travels, and it sure beats paying the inflated prices downtown.

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Just a quick question to try out a new feature.

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If you’re having problems reading or writing comments…   my web host is working on it.
photo credit: kalleboo

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I’m a big fan of the comic strip “Luann.” A week or so ago, the artist, Greg Evans, started a storyline about tattoos.

First, super-hot firefigher Toni Daytona got one.

Then, super-schlub firefighter Brad DeGroot got one (but not exactly on his own initiative).

Then, airhead queen Tiffany Farrell got one, apparently in an area not normally on display to the public even in the skimpy outfits she favors. (Is Tiffany 18? If not, how’d she manage that?)

Now, strip heroine LuAnn DeGroot has gotten caught by her parents, trying to sneak down to the tattoo parlor.

Not that I advocate getting tattoos for the reasons anyone but Toni got hers… but it’s sure going to be fun to see how this all turns out.

Check Luann and her family out here (and in other books of Luann daily strips) and see the series here.

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Had a lot of things to do the past few days, so the post I was going to put up today, I still have to think some more about. So till I get my act together, here are some links of interest to multicolored folk. No particular order–just sites I found interesting and I hope you all do too. If you have recommendations for other good sites, please add a comment!

The Art of Tattoo
National Geographic on the history of tattoos
British Tattoo History Museum
World Wide Tattoo Designs
About.com on plastic wrap
Alliance of Professional Tattoists: Advice for tattoo artist wannabees
Pat Fish, Celtic tattoo artist
Tattoo history sourcebook

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I was reading Karen Hudson’s account of getting new micro dermal anchors inserted on her blog on the about.com site (here) and it occurred to me that people who get tattoos often get multiple piercings as well.

I don’t have any piercings I couldn’t show my grandmother, if she were still around. However, I do have three piercings in each ear, and have occasionally thought about getting more. The general accounts of the pain involved in getting a cartilage piercing have kept me from going any farther than just thinking about it, though.

I know quite a few people who have more exotic ear piercings (my daughter got a tragus piercing a few years ago, for example) and who have their ears decorated with all kinds of studs, jewelry, rings, bars, etc. I know other people who have piercings that are, shall we say, not usually on show to the general public. I probably know more people who have those kinds of piercings and who aren’t talking about it, so I don’t know who they are.

I can’t, from personal experience, say whether pierced people are more likely to be tattooed, or whether tattooed people are more likely to be pierced, but it does seem that the latter statement tends to be true. I think once one gets into permanent body art, one naturally starts exploring beyond one’s initial endeavors.

I had two of my three pairs of ear piercings already when I got my first tattoo, and added the third set of holes shortly after I got my third tattoo. None of the more exotic piercings appeal to me at the moment, but that doesn’t mean I might not change my mind later on.

The dermal anchors were something I’d never heard of before. They certainly complement Ms. Hudson’s gorgeous body art. I don’t think I’ll be seeking any for myself any time soon, but at least now I’ve seen them.

Do any of you have unusual piercings to go with your multicolored skin?

photo credit: darkenstormyknight1

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Not long ago, I recorded a show on the History Channel called “Ancient Ink.” I finally got around to watching it yesterday. The host traveled around the world, featuring various traditional styles and methods of tattooing. A Maori artist amplified the tat on his back, a Japanese artist tattooed his leg in traditional style, and he showcased other people getting traditional tattoos (for example, a Polynesian body suit and an Inuit tattoo done by sewing the ink into the skin). He finished up at Zulu Tattoo in Los Angeles, which is where my daughter and I got inked (although we weren’t lucky enough to get inked by Zulu himself, who is so popular that one has to wait months for an appointment, and for good reason).

Naturally, the effect on me was to get me thinking about more ink.

But that’s not what got me to thinking tonight. There was the obligatory segment on tattoo removal,although it was focused on the removal of gang tattoos. I’ve had laser resurfacing done on my face (in a less than successful procedure to get rid of my eye bags) and the plastic surgeon put me under general anaesthesia for that. I know what it feels like afterwards, and I certainly wouldn’t want to go through it with just numbing cream on my skin.

Tonight on Los Angeles’ Channel 5 news, the “health and beauty” segment also talked about tattoo removal, and this time the patient was a woman in her 30s who was having a teenage indiscretion erased. The reporter, Marta Waller, revealed that she also had had a tattoo done on her foot as part of a past story on tattoo parlors, and is currently in the process of having it removed. And she agreed, removal is very painful.

I wonder why a reporter would go that far in quest of a story, if she wasn’t really committed to keeping it? Did she plan all along on having it removed, not treating it as a permanent thing? Was it just one of those things that sounded like a good idea at the time, and she regretted it later? She didn’t go into it.

At least the host of the “Ancient Ink” show got his new tattoos for good, spiritual, personal reasons, and I doubt he’ll be the host of a show on getting rid of tattoos any time soon.

Meanwhile… I’m definitely thinking about my own next trip to the tattoo parlor.
photo credit: riviera 2005

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