IDENTITY UNDER YOUR SKIN

“What are you going to do about your tattoos when you’re older?” “... I don’t know mate, probably grow an epic beard and hangout with other badass tattooed dudes and generally look awesome. What are you going to do when you just look like every other old bastard?” - Anonymous

Has anyone ever seen that movie from the 1970s entitled ‘Tattoo’? It told the story of a demented tattoo artist (played by one of my favorite movie-psychopaths, Bruce Dern) morbidly obsessed with a model; he abducts her, holds her hostage and expresses his undying love by covering her entire body with his creations (against her will, of course).

I could be euphemistic or totally exaggerating, but I do consider myself a vehement expressionist. As a function of my creative nature, I must express myself, speak my truth and illustrate my vision… even if it means comparing one of the most beloved art forms to dementia. Although the aforementioned is certainly a very extreme and undeniably fictional situation, tattoos have been a powerful part of our cultural scene for a very long time. Their dark and lingering appeal transcends the stereotypical images of ‘tough guys and gals’ and all of their underworld friends. In this disposable society, tattoos symbolize permanence and they retain a power and mystique all of their own.

Down through history, many famous personalities have adorned their bodies with tattoos: songstress Pearl Bailey had a heart on her upper thigh; David Bowie a lizard across one ankle; Cher tops them both in numbers and assortments, bearing a cluster of flowers on her butt and a black rose on one ankle, just to name a few; American politician Barry Goldwater bore a crescent with four dots in the shape of a snake bite. Heck, now even Barbie has a dragon tattoo running down her entire back or bearing a butterfly on her stomach.

Tattoos have actually become so popular in certain scenes that getting one might even run the risk of becoming a total cliché. For example, a friend of mine recently said that he is automatically less attracted to women with tattoos, not because he dislikes the mark itself, but because he feels like they probably just did it to follow a trend, and that gets just as dull when everyone has a tattoo as it does when nobody has them. While tattoos used to be considered rebellious, the more mainstream they get, strangely the less intimidating or surprising they’re becoming. Besides, when everyone is pinning and tweeting and tumbling their favorite tattoo designs to share, the ‘trending’ tattoo ideas are more likely to spread like wildfire. And puff! There goes your unique, one-of-a-kind, beautiful imprinted ornament.

However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. If you think about it, how else to change or to contribute to the very social conditions tattoos seek to challenge? The marketing of tattoos as being fashionable and chic has finally reached the stage of undermining the anti-consumer’s values expressed by many neo-primitives. The attempts to use tattoos to counter demeaning and objectifying images of men and women have been subverted by the popularization of tattooed bodies in every fashion magazine out there and countless music videos.

Furthermore, the youth of today (myself included) have this fear of being anonymous. So we decide to express ourselves through different mediums and in a multitude of ways, whether it’s paint to canvas, hands to clay or ink to skin. The tattoo speaks to the ongoing, complex need for humans to express themselves through the appearance of their bodies and the popularity of the tattoo attests to its power as vehicle for self-expression, commemoration and social commentary. The body serves as the perfect canvas to record the struggles people face in life, these in the end motivating any form of radical or mundane tattooing.

Tattoos, as some of us have already experienced them, are a form of self-expression so much more personal and definite than the traditional art, that at some point may have unexpected repercussions if you don’t take the time to think them through. So if you think it’s hard to forget a lover when his face still haunts your dreams, consider how much more difficult it would be when that face is indelibly stored deep within your scar tissue - the lyrics ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ take on a new and painful perspective when you apply tattoos to the subject at hand, am I right?

All in all, as these young people illustrate above, tattoos are a powerful means by which a generation can assert independence and commemorate important events, ranging from going away to college to living alone for the first time even to getting married. In marking these rites of passage, young people give tattoos multiple and at times contradictory meanings. While some invoke tattoos as signs of rebellion or rejection against authority figures and mainstream values, others utilize them in more nuanced ways, to either assert their own definitions of maturity and autonomy, or to simply cover themselves in pure art.

Is it right or wrong… well, who’s to say? Many things are relative and beauty is, after all, in the eye of the beholder. Whatever particular statement the young people are making nowadays with their body art, I believe the act of getting a tattoo increasingly serves as a strong vehicle to mark adulthood.

Focus Student Magazine

Published Spring 2014