Tatttooing

MODEL LANEY ZINN PHOTOGRAPHED BY KENNY PARK ART DIRECTOR TAHOE MACK

The Most Underrated and Transformative Artform

I’ve always had an appreciation for tattoos. It’s a longstanding artistic tradition that continues to evolve over the years, which is ironic because the point of the artwork is that it stays.

People choose to get tattoos for a multitude of reasons, but mine are simple. I moved around a lot until I came to Oregon and learned to expect constant and dramatic change. I became enamored with the concept of something permanent because of this. The fact that tattoos are permanent seems to scare a lot of people, but it was my primary selling point for wanting a tattoo. Well, that and an angsty teenage act of rebellion.

I was technically only 16-years-old, since it was the day before my 17th birthday. At the end of my junior year of high school, a friend came over to my mom’s house to give me a stick-andpoke tattoo. I’d like to clarify that – while she is one of the only people from my high school I genuinely wish well – we were only acquaintances from AP classes. I saw the stick-andpokes she gave herself, and one day during math analysis, we made a plan for her to give me one. The first and only time she and I hung out outside of school was for her to sit on my upstairs couch and give me a bomb stick-and-poke arrow (that one of my future tattoo artists said “Wait, that’s a stick-andpoke?” about). And then, in an angsty teenage manner, we climbed into our town’s graffitied sewer and later sat in a park for a bit.

A universal judgement about getting tattoos is that people feel different after, and I couldn’t agree more. Tattoos don’t just change your body; they change your mentality. My first tattoo helped me gain a sense of what permanence meant. It showed me that permanence existed. In my experience, this difference can be seen through a shift in confidence, self-empowerment and an elevated self-image. My latest tattoo is a realistically shaded lion on the inside of my right forearm. (No, I’m not a Leo; I’m just a Gemini with curly hair and an attitude.) The effects of my newest (and biggest) tattoo were pretty radical as far as sense-of-self was concerned.

Tattooing is an artform that creates a special bond between the artist and the buyer. The hours I’ve spent getting to know different tattoo artists over the years have sparked the most interesting, genuine conversations; and I haven’t met a tattoo artist who doesn’t have a unique story to share.

Jimmy Singleton, a tattoo artist from Illinois who works at The Parlour, has been tattooing for about 26 years. He told me “It takes two of us to make it look good.” By this, he meant to emphasize the collaborative effort between the artist and the person receiving the tattoo.

“I’m trying to live by: I’m only as good as my last tattoo. Even if it’s something simple, I try to push myself,” Singleton said. “For me, it might be something I’ve done five or six or 20 or 100 times. But, for that person, that’s special. I try to do everyone’s tattoo with as much honor and justice as I can – as if it’s my last tattoo.”

Singleton also mentioned that every tattoo tells a story.

“It could be a simple story like Jack and Jill or it could be this epic like War and Peace,” he said.

In this understanding, Singleton simplifies the very common misconception that not every tattoo has a reason. Whether or not a tattoo’s meaning is obvious or personal, each piece

WRITTEN BY AMANDA LUREY DESIGNER AUTUMN SOUCY

tells a story – and, therefore, adopts a meaning.

Some people may spend months or years thinking about a particular concept before deciding to get it tattooed. But, some people’s reason for getting a tattoo is a nonchalant “Because I wanted to and why not have a thigh tattoo of Red Forman?” (This is a real example; I did, in fact, get tattooed by a man who had Red Forman on his thigh and I honestly miss his energy.) Either way, every tattoo has a story behind it, and I think that’s beautiful.

By looking at an itty-bitty, one-inch arrow on my wrist, you wouldn’t know the meaning behind it anyway. This need for tattoos to have meanings is part of what permits the stigmatization of tattoos in our society.

UO junior Haylee Frame got her first tattoo, a carnation on her arm, on April 2 at The Parlour. She said she has always struggled with body image issues – specifically with her upper body – and this tattoo has helped.

“After getting it on my arm, I feel more confident to wear sleeves and tank tops because it’s really pretty and I want to show it off,” she said.

Additionally, while permanence was not a factor that led Frame to want a tattoo, it doesn’t scare her.

“On ‘Ink Master’ they’re always like, ‘You’re going to have this on you for the rest of your life. What’s it going to look like 50 years down the line?’ And, for me, I don’t care what I look like when I’m 70,” Frame said. “I’m going to be a wrinkly bag of bones anyway, so I might as well have something cool.”

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