Is it art? Is it beautiful? Is it self harm? Do you find it ugly? Do you find it offensive?
Do you feel differently about a middle aged man, dressed in biker leathers with 'LOVE' and 'HATE' inked across his knuckles than you do about Rihanna and her 'Sssshhhh' finger tattoo?
We are moving beyond the first decade of the twenty-first century yet I would hardly call our modern society progressive. The practice of tattooing has existed for centuries yet the stigma attached to it remains as well rooted as the ink beneath the skin.
I have been tattooed six times, resulting in three different designs. Whilst the tattoos on my feet and hip remain largely unremarked upon, no doubt due to their positioning, the one on my wrist garners a large amount of attention.
I am quite an impulsive person and I have a very short attention span when it comes to my appearance. I've had more hair cuts and radical colour changes than I can count and went through a phase, between the ages of 15 and 18, of getting anything and everything pierced (the top count was around 13 at one time). Unsurprisingly, with my frequent visitation to piercing parlours and my penchant for emo/pop-rock music, it wasn't long before I went under the needle. Stupidly, as a naive and hopeless rebel, I got my first tattoo several years before the legal age. I wouldn't necessarily say that I regret it, as I like to think of all my (many) errors in judgement as stories to tell, but I would definitely think twice before doing it again. When I was younger I don't think I fully comprehended the concept of permanent or FOREVER. You can take a piercing out and the wound will heal but, aside from costly and painful laser treatment, a tattoo is for life.
My first tattoo was an outline of three stars on my hip. So far, so OK.
My second tattoo was absolutely a mistake which I regret. On my seventeenth birthday I casually strolled into the local tattoo parlour and without contemplating it at all requested that a simple five point star be scratched onto the pale white skin of my right inner wrist. BIG MISTAKE. The tattoo artist was, as I later found out, a guy with a drug problem who wasn't quite 'with it' at the time. I was left with a slightly blurry, blob like star which was more of an eyesore than a beautiful piece of body art.
Lesson learnt. Research your artist and plan your design carefully before committing to the actual tattoo.
For my twenty-second birthday this year I got the above mistake corrected. That little blur of a star was covered up by a beautiful rose and a quote from my favourite poem:
Before:
After:
Now, I can say with certainty that this is, in my opinion, a beautiful piece of art created by a true artist.
Being so obviously displayed this tattoo has opened up conversation with many a friend, work colleague and stranger. People instinctively hold my wrist and try to contort my arm in impossible positions so as to read the words. I don't mind. I like the attention and I like, what is mostly, the appreciation.
However, a lot of people still consider such visible tattoos to be displeasing. Perhaps it is because tattoos, for them, are still attached to the stereotypes of leathered up rocker types and fake Burberry wearing chavs. I don't dispute the fact that a proportion of these social groups have tattoos which, for some, may not be visually pleasing in design. But I don't think that extensive body art necessarily correlates to a bad attitude or unpleasant personality. Tattoos shouldn't be victims of discrimination because of their, frankly outdated, association with the antisocial behaviour of a minority.
Just because I have permanent ink under my skin this doesn't equate to my being any less of an intelligent and well brought up individual.
On the catwalks for AW10 body art seemed to be a favourable trend. Rodarte embraced tribal body paint whilst Chanel produced limited edition temporary tattoos which rapidly appeared on the lithe limbs of many a young blogger and established editor. Yet this vogue for all things inked was as ephemeral as the designs themselves.
Tattooed stars like Rihanna, Freja, Angelina Jolie and Megan Fox remain anomalies amongst the mass of virgin skin in mainstream Hollywood. Heavily inked men are regarded as rugged, manly, hard and sexy. Tattooed women may be perceived as sexy but they are equally regarded as the 'bad girls'. The girls with an attitude. The ones you wouldn't trust. The bitches.
When did tattoos get such a bad reputation?
Beauty is only skin deep. As deep as the ink which stains it.
