Featured Discussions - Tattoo & Body Piercing Network2024-03-28T14:34:11Zhttp://areatattoo.ning.com/forum/topic/list?feed=yes&xn_auth=no&featured=1Tattoo culture making its mark on millennialstag:areatattoo.ning.com,2012-09-19:4753809:Topic:141012012-09-19T14:43:46.436ZBrent Allen, Tattoo Networkhttp://areatattoo.ning.com/profile/BrentAllen
<h3 class="deck">More urbanites going under the needle as tattoo taboos fade, artists and sociologists say</h3>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311490609?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" height="226" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311490609?profile=original" width="288"></img></a></p>
<h5 class="byline">By Matt Kwong, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/credit.html">CBC News</a></h5>
<p> </p>
<p>Few expressions of individuality are more telling than a tattoo.</p>
<p>At a time when curating one's image is as non-committal as changing a Facebook…</p>
<h3 class="deck">More urbanites going under the needle as tattoo taboos fade, artists and sociologists say</h3>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311490609?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311490609?profile=original" width="288" height="226"/></a></p>
<h5 class="byline">By Matt Kwong, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/credit.html">CBC News</a></h5>
<p> </p>
<p>Few expressions of individuality are more telling than a tattoo.</p>
<p>At a time when curating one's image is as non-committal as changing a Facebook status, artists say more young people are embracing the permanence of body modification by way of ink and hypodermic needle.</p>
<p>In B.C. this week, CBC News found evidence of <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/09/17/bc-teen-tattoos.html">so-called amateur scratch artists willing to mark up underage teens</a> without legal parental consent.</p>
<p>It's the kind of "flash art" tattoo experience that University of Toronto sociology professor Michael Atkinson underwent as a 17-year-old in Halifax — choosing a Guns N' Roses emblem from a wall and having it inscribed on his left bicep.</p>
<p>"It was $40. That was 1989. They didn't ask any questions, it was just 'Here you go,'" said Atkinson, author of <i>Tattooed: The Sociogenesis of a Body Art</i>.</p>
<p><strong>The story behind a tattoo</strong></p>
<p>"I have to be honest. I didn't put a hell of a lot of thought into that first one. But now there's a cultural expectation that if you have a tattoo, there has to be some story behind it."</p>
<p>It's an indication of how the industry has grown up in the decades since then, artists and their clients say, with popular perception of tattoo culture shifting to serious art movement from deviant behaviour.</p>
<p>Atkinson — whose arms, chest, ankle and lower neck are inked — describes tattooing as part fashion, part communicative act in a consumer culture that encourages swapping the old for the new.</p>
<p>"It's a frontier for the discussion of human agency," he philosophized. "How much will do we have, as people, to be able to inscribe whatever we want? Facebook is temporary. You can change it, delete things, you can't do that with the body. Tattoos aren't disposable. You can't buy the next model next year."</p>
<p>In Toronto at least, it's a booming trade, said Lizzie Renaud, owner of Speakeasy Tattoo.</p>
<p>In the late 1990s, as an apprentice still working the phones, there were maybe 15 shops in the city, she said. Now, a Yellow Pages search brings up 40 results for Toronto tattoo businesses.</p>
<p>"And that's even just the listed ones. I've heard that the number is around a hundred in the Greater Toronto Area," Renaud said. "It's nuts."</p>
<p>Clients book consultation sessions with the artists, many of whom have fine arts or graphic design degrees and specialize in styles such as photo-realism and Japanese Oni.</p>
<p>And Atkinson foresees more people going under the needle in years ahead, particularly in cosmopolitan areas.</p>
<p>"It's almost an exponential equation. I see tattooed bodies everywhere I go now," he said.</p>
<p>"Kids are also growing up with parents who are more tattooed than the generation before, so there are different social values at home."</p>
<p>The Washington-based Pew Research Center reported in 2010 that 38 per cent of millennials (then the 18-29 age bracket) acknowledged having at least one tattoo.</p>
<p>The report concluded that "tattoos have become something of a trademark" for people who began entering adulthood in the 2000s.</p>
<p>By comparison, 32 per cent of gen-Xers surveyed said they were tattooed, and only 15 per cent of the older baby boomers had body art.</p>
<h3>Reality TV pulling back the curtain</h3>
<p>Rocky Rakovic, editor of <a href="http://www.inkedmag.com/"><em>Inked Magazine</em></a>, credited reality TV programs such as <i>L.A. Ink</i> and the tattoo competition series <i>Ink Master</i> for popularizing what was once deemed a heavy counter-cultural movement.</p>
<p>"The tattoo shop was a scary place. Once television showed that these are normal people working there, it changed people's ideas," Rakovic said from New York.</p>
<p>"So yes, there's the kid who gets drunk on Spring Break and gets a monkey on his arm, but there's also people who spend a lot of money and research the art because they're serious about it."</p>
<p>Delaware-based tattoo artist Shane O'Neill, who specializes in realistic portraits and won the first season of <i>Ink Master</i>, said the shops have cleaned up, too.</p>
<p>"The ink is refined, the colours appear brighter, the needles meet a higher quality standard, where they don't cause as much trauma on the skin," O'Neill said.</p>
<p>He's also seeing a different clientele compared to when he started working 15 years ago</p>
<p>"Doctors, lawyers," O'Neill said. "Most shocking for me was a customer who was a 64-year-old woman — a rabbi — and she waited until she was 64 to get a tattoo."</p>
<p>That's not to say that tattooed bodies are becoming normative or mainstream, Atkinson said.</p>
<p>Toronto or New York City may be liberal spaces, but body art may not be as openly accepted elsewhere and certainly not in some job fields.</p>
<p>"I work in a university, but if I'm working around Bay Street lawyers or big business, and I came in with my hands tattooed, it would be un-normative in that space," Atkinson said, though he acknowledged that being a tenured professor with a family has afforded him a certain "sin licence." (Atkinson plans to get a hand tattooed for the first time in December.)</p>
<h3>Beware 'job-stopper' art</h3>
<p>Tattoo placement is still crucial for most body art collectors, Rakovic said, adding that some respected artists will send prospective clients home for a week to think more seriously about whether they want their knuckles marked for life.</p>
<p>Rakovic said his staff at the <i>Inked</i> offices have a term for those kinds of pieces.</p>
<p>"'Job-stoppers,' we call them," he said.</p>
<p>Even so, tattoo exposure didn't dissuade Dalhousie University from using one of its tattooed faculty members, Chris Helland, in promotional materials in 2007.</p>
<p>Helland, an expert on religion on the internet who got his first tattoo when he was 18, became a poster boy for the school's <a href="http://www.bodymodificationdirectory.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Christopher-Helland1.jpg">"Discover the Unexpected" ad campaign</a>, which featured the sociology professor with his sleeves rolled up to display the intricate panorama etched on his arms.</p>
<p>"There was this perception that tattoos are associated with deviant behaviour, and that's a very biased and Eurocentric perspective," Helland said. "But as a sociologist of religion, I'm very fascinated by sacred or religious tattooing, the rituals and the different belief systems associated with it."</p>
<p>The 45-year-old academic noted that all his tattoos can be concealed if he wears a long-sleeved shirt with a collar.</p>
<p>That's certainly the way to go, said Rakovic, who said he's seen enough regrettable tattoos in his years with <i>Inked</i> to stress the permanence of a decision to get inked up.</p>
<h3>Current trends in tattoos</h3>
<p>"Coming in and out of vogue isn't an option," he said, noting that trends are tilting towards script and lettering tattoos, and a popular placement for women's tattoos has moved from the lower back to the rib area.</p>
<p>"We call it the 'skank flank,'" he said. "Every week or two, I see another girl with another rib piece, and you have to tell them that."</p>
<p>Classic "neo-traditional American" tattoos aren't likely to go out of style, whereas "a butterfly on the lower back, or a 'tramp stamp,' is universally panned," he said.</p>
<p>"Tribal has declined while photo-realism, exact representations of people and objects, is on the rise," Rakovic added in an email.</p>
<p>As for the movement to change perceptions at the workplace, Rakovic said there's still a ways to go. A Facebook group called "<a href="http://www.facebook.com/ThINKequality">Tattoo acceptance in the workplace</a>" has more than a million supporters, and Rakovic said he was excited about a popular T-shirt the magazine's online shop is selling — one he <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311490609?profile=original" target="_self"></a>wants more body art collectors to start wearing.</p>
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<p> </p> One in Five U.S. Adults Now Has a Tattootag:areatattoo.ning.com,2012-02-24:4753809:Topic:107012012-02-24T05:52:03.077ZBrent Allen, Tattoo Networkhttp://areatattoo.ning.com/profile/BrentAllen
<p><span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; display: inline !important; font: 12px/17px Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; letter-spacing: normal; color: #888888; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Feb. 23, 2012, 6:04 a.m. EST ---…</span></p>
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<p><span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; display: inline !important; font: 12px/17px Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; letter-spacing: normal; color: #888888; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Feb. 23, 2012, 6:04 a.m. EST ---</span></p>
<p><span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; display: inline !important; font: 12px/17px Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; letter-spacing: normal; color: #888888; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; display: inline !important; font: 12px/17px Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; letter-spacing: normal; color: #888888; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; display: inline !important; font: 14px/18px Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">NEW YORK, Feb. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- There is a lot of culture and lore associated with tattoos from ancient art to modern expressionism and there are many reasons people choose to get, or not get, permanent body ink. A recent Harris Poll looks at the number of Americans who currently have tattoos, and what those tattoos may say about them.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; padding-right: 6px; font: 1.16em/1.35em Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; padding-top: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;">These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,016 adults surveyed online between January 16 and 23, 2012 by Harris Interactive.</p>
<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; padding-right: 6px; font: 1.16em/1.35em Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; padding-top: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;">Currently one in five U.S. adults has at least one tattoo (21%) which is up from the 16% and 14% who reported having a tattoo when this question was asked in 2003 and 2008, respectively. Tattoos seem to be most prevalent in the West -- 26% of adults in that region report having at least one -- compared to fewer in the East (21%), Midwest (21%) and South (18%). Adults aged 30-39 are most likely to have a tattoo (38%) compared to both those younger (30% of those 25-29 and 22% of those 18-24) and older (27% of those 40-49, 11% of those 50-64 and just 5% of those 65 and older). Women are slightly more likely than men, for the first time since this question was first asked, to have a tattoo (now 23% versus 19%).</p>
<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; padding-right: 6px; font: 1.16em/1.35em Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; padding-top: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;">Among those with a tattoo, most have never regretted getting a tattoo (86%) and three in ten say it makes them feel more sexy (30%). One-quarter say having a tattoo makes them feel rebellious (25%), 21% say both it makes them feel attractive or strong, 16% say it makes them feel spiritual and fewer say it makes them feel more healthy (9%), intelligent (8%) or athletic (5%).</p>
<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; padding-right: 6px; font: 1.16em/1.35em Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; padding-top: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;">However, among those without tattoos the opinions differ:</p>
<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; padding-right: 6px; font: 1.16em/1.35em Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; padding-top: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;">At least two in five say that people with tattoos are less attractive (45%) or sexy (39%);</p>
<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; padding-right: 6px; font: 1.16em/1.35em Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; padding-top: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;">One-quarter say that people with tattoos are less intelligent (27%), healthy (25%) or spiritual (25%);</p>
<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; padding-right: 6px; font: 1.16em/1.35em Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; padding-top: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;">However, having a tattoo seems to make little difference in non-tattooed people's perceptions regarding strength and athleticism (82% say it makes no difference); yet,</p>
<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; padding-right: 6px; font: 1.16em/1.35em Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; padding-top: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;">Half of those without a tattoo say people with tattoos are more rebellious (50%).</p>
<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; padding-right: 6px; font: 1.16em/1.35em Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; padding-top: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;">This idea connecting tattoos with rebelliousness is not new, however, it may be waning. In 2008 among all adults (whether or not they had a tattoo) almost three in ten said that people with tattoos are more likely to do something most people consider deviant (29%) while 2% said people with tattoos were less likely to do something deviant and 69% said it made no difference. Today, the number of people who say adults with tattoos are more likely to do something most people consider deviant has dropped to 24%, and the number of people who say it makes no difference has gone up, to 74%.</p>
<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; padding-right: 6px; font: 1.16em/1.35em Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; padding-top: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;">Looking at some other forms of body art or expression, currently 49% of U.S. adults have pierced ears, which is consistent with the 50% who reported having pierced ears in 2008. Although ear piercing is fairly common, other piercings are not: only 7% say they have a piercing elsewhere on their body and 4% report having a facial piercing not on the ear. Only 1% of U.S. adults say that they currently have a henna, or non-permanent, tattoo.</p>
<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; padding-right: 6px; font: 1.16em/1.35em Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; padding-top: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;">Although tattoos may be gaining popularity (or at least frequency) among U.S. adults, the majority think that one should be an adult before being able to get a tattoo -- 84% of U.S. adults say that young people should be between 18 and 21 years of age before they are able to get a tattoo without parental permission. 8% think those 16 or 17 should be allowed to get tattoos and 6% say that the age limit should be 22 years or older.</p>
<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; padding-right: 6px; font: 1.16em/1.35em Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; padding-top: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;"><span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; display: inline !important; font: 14px/18px Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Tattoos have long been a hobby for some, and with the recent proliferation of tattoo-related television shows, it seems interest in them may be broadening. Today 21% of U.S. adults report having a tattoo which is up from previous years. It seems that with the increasing number of adults with tattoos this permanent body art is becoming more accepted -- fewer people think it is related to deviant behavior than before -- yet among those without tattoos there are still several negative stigmas associated with having tattoos. It will be interesting to see how these trends evolve in the future -- if more people continue to get tattoos will the negative connotations decline, or will the percentage of Americans with tattoos begin to stagnate or wane and the stigmas hold?</span></p>
<p style="padding-bottom: 0px; widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding-left: 6px; outline-width: 0px; padding-right: 6px; font: 1.16em/1.35em Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; padding-top: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;"><span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; display: inline !important; font: 14px/18px Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; background-color: #ffffff; text-indent: 0px; display: inline !important; font: 14px/18px Arial; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; letter-spacing: normal; color: #333333; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">SOURCE Harris Interactive</span></span></p>
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