It’s hard to look authentically rebellious or menacing these days,
when even well-behaved businessmen wear earrings and ponytails and
college students destined for quiet suburban lives have body piercings
and tattoos.
Tattoos, in particular, are not the radical brandings, the bold
violations of flesh and propriety, they once were. Available in New York
from almost 1,400 licensed tattoo artists, tattoos are probably better
and safer now than they’ve ever been — more creative and varied, applied
in many cases by serious, highly skilled body artists.
Then again,
there are tattoos, and there are tattoos. It is unlikely that the
ambitious professional with a single, understated, discreetly placed and
wittily conceived tat, or for that matter the teenager with her
boyfriend’s name and two lovebirds emblazoned in the small of her back,
will ever have tattoos on the face and scalp, or a full chest or back
“panel” or a tattooed arm or leg.
Some tattoo aficionados, though, have transformed large portions of
their bodies into multicolored canvases for all manner of skulls,
serpents, raptors, flame-breathing dragons, flowers, vines, angels,
demons, daggers, buxom bombshells and portraits of heroes and loved
ones.
Tattoos have been used for centuries to reflect changes in life
status, whether passage into adulthood or induction into a group like
the military or a gang. In recent years, tattoos have also become a
fashion accessory, a trend fueled by basketball players, bands and
celebrities.
A report by the Food and Drug Administration estimated that as many
as 45 million Americans have tattoos. The report based the number on the
finding by a Harris Interactive Poll in 2003 that 16 percent of all
adults and 36 percent of people 25 to 29 had at least one tattoo. The
poll also found that 17 percent of tattooed Americans regretted it. And a
tattoo that cost several hundred dollars could require several thousand
dollars and many laser sessions to remove.
— From Times articles.
Arm tattoos on Celebrity
