Body art evolves

When kids get to the long awaited 18th year and become adults, they can go away to college, keep a later curfew, get into nightclubs or perhaps get a tattoo.   Whether you love, hate or want to erase a tattoo, by the looks of HCC students, they are here to stay, literally.  

Tattoos began about 5000 years ago and are as diverse as the people who wear them.   According to recent news reports, nearly, 40 million people, have tattoos.  

The popularity of tattoos among celebrities may affect a young adult’s decision to get a tattoo.  Perhaps college students get inked up for other reasons, like a love for art, peer pressure or to rebel against their parents.   

Over the past 30 years, tattoos have gone through quite an evolution. Eagles and hearts placed on the forearm were popular in the 1970s.  In the 1980s a love for skulls, roses and Harley Davidson motorcycles were reflected on the chest of many bikers. 

During the 1990s tattooing became more of an art form; many artists began working in tattoo shops, using the human body as their canvas. 

It was during this decade that tribal art, praying hands, bible verses and faces of loved ones began to show up on the upper arms, lower backs and stomachs of  people. 

The late 90s was also the era of the “tramp stamp,” a tattoo placed on the lower back of a female.  The current trends are stars and hearts placed behind the ear or inconspicuous places like the back of the wrist or foot.

Despite the sagging economy, tattoo parlors are getting plenty of business, according to Ari Ades, tattoo artist at Atomic Tattoos & Piercing on Dale Mabry Highway and Kennedy Boulevard. 

“Our artists average about 60 tattoos per month and approximately 80 percent of our clients are repeat clients,” said Ades.   

If the act of getting a tattoo is addictive, Nelson Griffith, 25, would know firsthand. 

With eight tattoos adorning his body he has plans to get a lot more. 

Griffith was 19 when he got his first tattoo. “A tattoo is a way of expressing who you are,” said Griffith.    

“I would never get a tattoo,” said Justin Ward, 22.“They are just not attractive and there is nothing so important to me to place it on my body permanently,” he said.

While Heather St.Amand, 32, loves tattoos she wants to erase two of hers.  “I was 17 when I got my first tattoo and it was done badly,” said St.Amand.  “My second tattoo, not only does it have my ex-husband’s initials, the tattoo is also backwards”, she said.

“I have seen an increase in those wanting to get their tattoos erased,” said Dr. Thomas Taylor, a dermatologist specializing in tattoo removal.  “The best way to remove a tattoo is to never get one in the first place”, he said.  Taylor admitted that even the best laser treatment available does not guarantee complete removal of a tattoo. 

Consequences of laser removal can include burning, skin lighting, darkening or keloids.  So, whether you love, hate or want to erase your tattoo, the most important thing is to make a smart decision.