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You’ll Never Believe How Luckbox’s Rockhound Got This Tattoo Americans spend an estimated $1.65 billion annually on tattoos. Here’s how $60 was spent. By Vonetta Logan
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t’s not super rare in these days of pandemicinduced isolation to work with someone for 11 months without meeting her in person. But it is super rare to see her face-to-face for the first time when she’s on her way to receive a “get-whatyou-get” tattoo. Yet, that’s how I had my first offline encounter with Luckbox’s very brave associate editor and resident music critic Kendall Polidori, aka The Rockhound (see p. 41). Kendall found a tattoo shop in Chicago called Dwelling Tattoo that offers a unique service: Roll the die and whatever number turns up corresponds to a tattoo in the artist’s sketchbook. For $60, the tattooer will etch this literally random image into the appendage of your choice. What better way to live the fever dream fantasy that bewitches Gen Z? Instagram? Check. Random variables? Check. Being able to start a story with “you’ll never believe how I got this tattoo…” Check. Kendall asked me to accompany her on this adventure that combines a penchant for probability, a taste for tattoo art and a feel for P.T. Barnum showmanship. We begin by sitting down for coffee at the Moonwalker Cafe in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood. Kendall, who’s 23 and has rosy cheeks and octagon glasses, enters wrapped in the accouterments of a Chicago winter. She seems normal, but she’s ensconced in winter clothes, so I have no idea if her entire body is covered with tats. She removes her hat and coat, and I’m disappointed to find she’s wearing a normal sweater and doesn’t even have any neck tattoos. Bor-ing.
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Luckbox | March 2022
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