In the past, if you had a tattoo you were a member of a
circus freak show, a criminal or a hardened thug who rode around causing havoc
on a Harley. Tattoos were once a tell-tale sign of a social outcast, a rebel or
worse: a leather-clad folk devil. These kinds of people opened the door for
tattoos in the western world, a door most wanted to shut. Nowadays though, it
seems celebrities and the music scene have wedged open the door, rolled out the
red carpet and waved a welcome banner. Tattoos are more popular now than ever
before, if anything they’ve become a prominent fashion accessory. In America, its
estimated 14% of its population are sporting art on their skin, it doesn’t
sound like much at first, but that’s a massive 42.7 million people.
So, if the likes of Blink182’s Travis Barker, David Beckham
and Penelope Cruz can all ink their skin, things are finally looking good for
the world of tattoos, right? Smitten with the idea of treating my own body as a
blank canvas, my ideal response would be ‘right’, but that would be as bogus as
the transfer tattoos kids find in their sweets.
Having parents with tattoos, I found myself growing up with
shows such as ‘Miami Ink’ and ‘Ink Master’. The shows glamourized tattoos so
well that I never even considered that the art form still restricts job
prospects, suffers at the hands of ‘scratchers’ (untrained and unlicensed
‘artists’, who tattoo cheaply and often unhygienically) and leads to
discrimination.
Nicholas Gill, – who runs
and works in his own tattoo shop of four years-,
has struggled with these issues throughout his career. “These shows increased our client base and did
finally show tattoos in a good light, but they also made clients unrealistic on
how long tattoos take. People think a full sleeve takes a matter of hours when
really its months, so many people turn to rushed work. It has increased the number
of ‘Scratchers’ who think they’re tattooists, when really they’re just ruining people’s
skin, making our job harder”.
With the amount of people wanting quick and cheap tattoos increasing, so
too are scratch tattoos displayed for judgement; so it’s little surprise that some
of the public fail to see the arts evolution and progression. Nicholas went on
to say, “We get a lot of people coming in that want scratch work fixing or
covering, but most of the time it’s that bad and so poorly done, the skin is
too damaged and badly scared that we can’t do much, they’re worse than prison
tattoos.”
And it’s not just Scratcher’s needles to fear: unemployment’s off-putting
too. HMV recently revealed an ‘appearance
policy’, in which employees must cover their body art; and unless you’re
willing to buy cover-up products, I’m not sure how you’re meant to hide
knuckle, neck or facial tattoos. And it’s not just HMV. Because it’s legal to
discriminate against, most companies ask employees to hide tattoos or leave.
Even Metropolitan Police are disallowed visible tattoos, fearing damage to their
professionalism. Nicholas constantly see’s clients affected, “only yesterday
a client told me she would receive warnings over a visible tattoo, so she
changed placement from her arm to her hip.”
Discrimination doesn’t only affect careers either. In Texas, a mother and
her child were escorted from Lego Land after complaints over her raunchy
Tinkerbell tattoo. Nicholas stated, “Some people still see tattoos as
horrible, relating them to thug culture. Everybody’s opinions vary, singling
somebody out like that, to me, is as wrong as judging by the colour of skin or gender.”
Even Channel 4 caused outrage with their show, ‘My tattoo addiction’,
showing unhygienic ‘artists’ tattooing drunks with shamefully bad pieces. I was
dismayed at the representation, the quality of tattoos has rapidly increased, new
styles and realism pieces are as lifelike as photos. Old fashioned branding has
turned into an art form, made evident by Nicholas, “I specialise in custom work
because I feel tattoos are so much more than just marking. It’s a way you can
express yourself through meaningful art. We get a lot of clients who had
tattoos during the 70s and 80s who have seen what is possible and like to
update their work. Its gaining respect and people are finally seeing what can
be done with a needle.”
His words held optimism, but I was soon disappointed, “despite their
beauty though, because of their bad history, I can’t see them ever being fully
accepted, no matter how many millions have one.’ I took to the public hoping
for an alternative, but words like, “I don’t care how well done they are, I have
always found them disgusting and the sign of a thug or hussy, and always will”
from Dave Baker, have left me with the thought that some stigmas are as
permanent as tattoos themselves, so if you go under the needle you’re going to
need thick skin.
