Tattooed America: The Rise Of Skin Art

More Common Than Ever, The Culture Of Tattooes Has Gotten Under The Skin Of All Sorts Of People

(CBS) 
According to Boston College sociology professor, Dr. Sharlene Hesse-Biber, the practice of tattooing goes back more than 5,000 years.

"We know about the presence of tattoos by the unearthing of various mummies, mummy sites in Egypt, for example, around 2,000 B.C.," said Hesse-Biber, who is an expert of body art.

The Bronze age man found frozen in the Italian Alps had 57 tattoos. In the 18th century, England's Captain James Cooke sailed to the South Pacific and found cultures rich in tattoos.

"He was in awe of the tattooing. He brought one of the Tahitian men back to King George's court," she said.

Tattoos caught on with sailors the world over, even Popeye. In 1891, New Yorker Samuel O'Reilly invented the modern tattooing machine, a machine still in use today - and more in demand than ever.

"We've made tattooing become fashionable," she said. "In our country, we associated it with prisoners, outcasts. And all of a sudden, it's become this kind of fashionable thing."

Celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp have propelled tattoos to popularity, along with professional athletes like Shaquille O'Neal and Dennis Rodman. And then there's TLC's "Miami Ink" which has brought tattooing into our living rooms.

The laser is changing the history of tattoos as now they can now come off. At New York's Tattoo Removal Center, dancer Hernan Lucero is having one erased.

"For professional reasons, I don't want it to affect my career or my work adversely. That's really the bottom line," he said. "I really like it, I just don't want to have it there."

Removing a tattoo typically takes 6 to 8 treatments, and without the right equipment it can be painful. Dr. Jeffrey Rand says big motivators for his patients are tattoos with names.

"Ex-wife, ex-husband, soon as the divorce papers are dry, the first thing that people do is come in and get their tattoo removed," Rand said. "A bad breakup, boyfriend, girlfriend, a similar reason."

But removing tattoos costs a lot of money.

"The tattoo cost about $125, 130 to put it on," Lucero said. "It's gonna cost me about 1,500, 1800 dollars [to get it off], like ten-fold. They say mistakes are costly, so this is a good example of it."

Will the tattooed third of today's youth someday see their tattoos as a mistake? Hard to say. But the reasons of the moment seem to outweigh the concerns of tomorrow.

"I often see young people, you know, sort of saying to their parents, 'I'm having a tattoo, mom and dad, 'cause you know, I'm grown up. I can make my own decisions,'" Hesse-Biber said.

That's a sentiment Gonzales agrees with.

"For so long I felt protected, too protected I guess by my parents, too protected by people around me," she said. "This is a way to reveal and to say, like, you know, it's my body, and I do what I think is right for me."

When it was all done, she was thrilled.

"Ah! It's so beautiful," she told her tattoo artist. "Oh my God, I can't wait to get another one! Thank you so much!"

[dlsparks514]

I am curious why stories on tattoos never address what happens to a tattoo as a person ages. More and more stories are on TV about how a tattoo artist painstakingly draws a tattoo on the human body or how costly it is to have a`tattoo removed but I have yet to see a story that includes the transformation of a tattoo as one grows older. My father has a tattoo on his forearm. He had it done while he was serving in the armed forces during WWII as did many other servicemen did during that era. Today the tattoo is just a dark blob on his forearm. It has been that way for many, many years. From observing my father's tattoo and those of other older adults, it is plain to see tattoos do not age well. It only stands to reason since a person's skin continually changes as one ages that a tattoo would also change. And they do not change for the better. Showing the aging of a tattoo should have been included in the story. Let people know that the cute little colorful butterfly on an 18 year old's shoulder is going to be nothing more than an unattractive skin discoloration later in life.

[jammer76010]

It depends on how proficient the tattoo artist was and the quality of ink that was used. I am 55 years old and have 5 tattoos signifying various events in my life. 4 of these were done by a teriffic artist in Texas and have not changed in appearance in 20 plus years. One was done in a port in Spain and was messy within 5 years. Fortunately I was able to have it redone by another artist years later and transformed back into a very nice piece of art. The crisp clarity of the older tattoos have slightly faded, but the art itself is still beautiful. I would suggest that anyone looking to have a tattoo done, search around for an artist that really knows his business. Avoid these young kids with little or no real experience just to save yourself a few dollars. Remember, you get what you pay for, and you will live with it for quite a long time. I wouldn't trade any of my tattoos as they are works of art that all mean something special to me.

[callahanpaul]

My wife and I got our first tattoos 6 years ago when we were 45 and 43, respectively. At this point, she has in excess of 50 tats, mostly flowers, butterflys, bees, dragonflys, etc. forming a wonderful mosaic on her arms and chest. I have only 9, mostly of asian design, reflecting my martial arts backround. The biggest of these covers my back, a depiction of a mountainside temple in Korea. Our sons, 21 and 18, think the tats are cool but have no interest in getting any. Maybe we scared them off? Why do what Mom and Dad have done? BTW, she is a homemaker and I am a professional with a major insurance company, although we do ride a Harley!

As for aging of tats, it is all in how they were done and how they are cared for. Most WWII tats were crudely done and not cared for at all. Mr. Sparks, did your father ever use sunscreen? I will bet not. When I am outside, I use SPF 55 or better on them. I am not worried at all about how they will look in 30 years because the quality of the work is great and I care for them. I strongly agree with Jammer. Quality work costs more but considering this is permanent, well worth it.

[egio-2009]

I wanted to take a quick moment to reply to DLSparks' comment about the aging tattoo. He mentions his father's tattoo from WWII is nothing more than a dark blob now and that your story should have included the outcome of a tattoo after many years on the skin.
I have been a tattoo artist for over 10 years now and I do see his/ her point on this and I can say that over the years tattooing has changed considerably as has the technology involved in our craft. While our machines are still the same in the sense of how they are built and how they run, the materials used now are much better than before and give the tattoo a better line quality as well as color. Also changing over the years are our power sources ( how we run our machines ), pigments and needles which have also changed for the better and this gives the tattoos of today more "staying power" if you will. I do understand that skin loses elasticity over the years and of course there will be change in the work as a result of that, but I honestly think that with the constant change in technology in our craft and the fact that we hold seminars on better tattooing techniques and machine building, etc., the longevity of our tattoos compared to those of our fathers and grandfathers, I feel, will surpass that.