STYLE

PAINSGrowing

During the global pandemic, more and more people have turned to skin art to memorialize the growth and change they have endured.

BY CAROLINE GILLEN | PHOTOS BY CITLALI ELENA

Citlali Elena gives a tattoo at Skin Hooked Tattoos where she is an apprentice at.

During stressful times, humans sometimes have a habit of turning toward art and selfexpression. The coronavirus pandemic has caused dramatic growth and change, which many people have chosen to memorialize in the form of a tattoo.

According to The New York Times, the sales for stick and poke kits, which are tattoos that can be done at home without a professional, have increased tremendously during the pandemic as people have been spending extra time inside their homes and have decided to create their own skin art. Tattoo shops have also felt the impact of the demands of tattoos.

Skin Hooked Tattoos on Court Street has certainly felt the weight of the influx of tattoos when some of the pandemic restrictions were loosened, and the ink shop felt it once again when Ohio University students came back to campus.

Citlali Elena graduated in 2019 from OU with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and a concentration in painting and drawing, in addition to an art history minor. After graduating, Elena was mentored by Shawn Hooks, tattoo artist and owner of Skin Hooked Tattoos, as well as Charlie Vieregge, a tattooist and the shop manager. Elena practiced tattooing on fake skin and herself for a while before officially becoming a tattoo apprentice at Skin Hooked Tattoos. “I think people are kind of bored right now,” Elena said, sharing what she believes caused the spike in tattoos. “They want something to do that is interesting but not too dangerous, as we keep a safe practice at the shop. There have been a lot of first-timers coming in, those who have never had a tattoo before, and because I usually do minimalist stuff a lot of people come to me for their first tattoos and it’s really cute. I’ve been getting a lot of little flowers, mostly meant to represent growth during these times.” According to the Smithsonian Magazine, tattooing is one of humanity’s earliest art forms, dating back to 2000 BC. The art of tattoos is important to numerous cultures across the globe, from Native American culture and India’s henna to New Zealand’s Maori Tribe facial tattoos.

Over the last few decades, tattoos have gradually made their way into pop culture. About 145 million United States citizens have at least one tattoo and the numbers

“I got her handwriting saying ‘I love you,’ so she wouldn’t be mad.”

SAMMIE COTTRELL OU FRESHMEN

are only continuing to grow.

Sammie Cottrell, an OU freshman studying social work, got her first tattoo during the pandemic right after the national shut down was lifted.

“I got two tattoos,” Cottrell said. “The one on the side of my forearm is my mom’s handwriting. The second one is right above my elbow and says, ‘Still I rise,’ and it is really meaningful to me. I have been thinking about getting a tattoo since I was 16 but have been putting it off because I had work or softball. The pandemic gave me the freedom to think about it and finally do it.”

Not everyone in her immediate circle was too pleased by Cottrell’s decision to get tattoos.

“My mom was really opposed to me getting tattoos and I knew she would at least prefer for me to get a tattoo that could be easily covered,” Cottrell said. “So I got her handwriting saying, ‘I love you,’ so she wouldn’t be mad.”

Tattoos as an art form can help some people adapt to troubling or unfamiliar situations and symbolize how those obstacles were overcome.

“A lot of people that come in after their tattoos tell me it’s a therapeutic experience because sometimes pain can be grounding and the way that the art is done,” Elena says. “It’s painful but there is also a relationship that is formed between the artist and person getting tattooed.” b