Tattoos : Taboo Turned Mainstream Beauty
“When the designs are chosen with care, tattoos have a power and magic all their own. They decorate the body but they also enhance the soul.”
(Michelle Delio, Tattoo: The Exotic Art of Skin Decoration, p. 13)
John Wilkes Booth, Angelina Jolie, Winston Churchill, Sandra Bullock and Josef Stalin all made the decision to get inked. The notion of tattoos being taboo for women has slipped quietly into mainstream acceptance as more and more people get tattoos, and the Atlanta tattoo market is stronger than ever for girls.
At the turn of the 20th century, female circus workers would get tattoos and charge patrons an admission fee to view them . Tattooed women then were indeed brave, sensational and determined. Ignoring the taboo of being permanently inked, they also risked jail during a time when even exposing one’s knee could be considered indecent exposure. Through steady years of exposure in the circus and vaudeville acceptance of female tattoos grew and continues to do so through popular media and celebrities. Perhaps nothing better illustrates this acceptance than the release of a tattooed Barbie Doll by Mattel in 1999 (it was withdrawn due to the protests of concerned parents). It is now re-released as Totally Stylin’ Barbie, and is available to everyone.
Atlanta Salon & Spa talks with tattoo artist “Jenny Bunns “ Young (Timeless Tattoo)
Jenny’s Facebook Fanpage http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jenny-Bunns-Young/9002583889
Jennys website about tattooing, comics, illustration and more in Atlanta http://www.theinkbunnydiaries.com/ 
Atl SS: What was your first tattoo?
Jenny Bunns Young: Embarrassingly, my first tattoo was a tribal-influenced piece on my lower back. But back then, lower back tattoos were accepted as a perfectly nice place for a female to put a tattoo, and it hadn’t been coined “tramp stamp” yet. I suppose I got the tattoo simply because I had just turned 18 and I wanted one really badly. I drew the design myself, and at the time I was really into Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic book series, so it was something that represented the story Season of Mists. I put it there because I didn’t want my parents to see it, so I could easily hide it, but i could also show it if I wanted to! In retrospect, it was a pretty silly reason why I did what I did - but then again, when you’re 18 years old, your world is quite small compared to what it becomes when you get older. So I did what I thought was within my means of experience. I had thought about lasering off my first tattoo, but it’s not something I regret - it’s just that i’ve become a different person. Ultimately I changed my mind about laser, because I concluded that this tattoo marked who I was at that time - my tattoos are kind of like a scrapbook of who I was or what I was interested in at that moment in time.
Atl SS: How many Tattoos do you currently have?
JBY: It’s hard to quantify the number of tattoos I have. I’m definitely not as heavily tattooed as the guys I work with. But how does one count? I have a whole backpiece - does that count as one tattoo? But it took nearly a decade to complete it, so do you count each session I had to go through to get it? Things like that make it hard to count. Plus, quantifying tattoos is not necessarily a good way to know how heavily a person is tattooed. I’ve seen people with 20 tattoos and I wouldn’t see any in their regular clothes because they’re all tiny ones, but I’ve seen people with just a few but are almost totally covered.
Atl SS: How did you become a tattoo artist?
JBY: Tattooing had always been a dream of mine, since I was at least 10. I’ve always loved drawing, so I wanted to be in the art-related field, I just didn’t want to be stuck in a cubicle or some stuffy art gallery - or be a waitress who did art “on the side”. Tattooing was always a mysterious art form for me, so not only was it this fantastic thing, a childhood pipe dream - but as I got older it just seemed like more and more of an attractive career choice. You get to meet all kinds of different people, you can travel if you want, you can get a job almost anywhere! You don’t have to hide anything, you can wear whatever you want, you can skip down the hallways, you can tell borderline inappropriate jokes (as the guys usually do)… basically - you can be who you are. It took me a long time to come to that conclusion, though. Tattooing had always been in the back of my mind, but it had intimidated me too much for me to try it. I also had family pressures - go to college, go to grad school, make a 6 figure income as a white collar citizen - basically the stereotypical Asian family expectations. I had always been torn between doing what I wanted and being an obedient child. But through a series of small epiphanies, I slowly grew into my own person, with the help of pursuing my dream job.
Atl SS: Are tattoos divided into traditional groupings?
JBY: Yes, there are genres. Tribal, American Traditional, Fine Line & Photorealism, Black & Grey, New Skool, Religious, Hand-written Script Lettering, Traditional Japanese… but the variety doesn’t stop there. People get anywhere from band logos to quotes, from their 5 year old’s signature to a friend’s drawing, from memorial tattoos to their favorite cartoon character. Anything you can think of, there’s a tattoo for it. Most of the slang for tattoo terms is fairly self-explanatory - sleeve, back-piece, chest plate, body armor, etc.
But there are some misnomers that pop culture had given birth to that most of us tattoo artists cringe at….
“Tattoo guns” - our tools are not guns, they do not shoot anything. They are called “Tattoo Machines”.
“Tatts” or “Tatted Up” Rappers are not tattoo artists, what do they really know about tattoos?
“Free-styling” This is a confusing term. Most tattoo artists are capable of freehand drawing a design, but I believe free-styling is usually used in the context of music. So when customers ask if I can “free-style”, I wonder if they’re asking if I can draw them something, or if I can instantly come up with a rhyme.
Atl SS: What is your take on the “suicide girl” style tattoo sites?
JWB: I think it’s great for women to celebrate their artwork and their bodies in tasteful pin-up style photos. The photography is an art in and of itself. I support my friends who model or even photograph, whether they’re tattooed or not. But there is always another side to things - there are always those few women who do tattoo pin-up style photos as a way to validate themselves as an attractive woman, which can lead to certain body image issues. Sometimes that can ruin an intentionally good thing. But that’s just me.
Atl SS: What are some of the legal/ethical considerations with tattoos?
It depends on the county you work in - each county in each city and state has their own rules and regulations. Here in City of Atlanta, there are not written limitations on tattooing a certain body part. The shop I work at does not do facial tattoos - the only exception we make is the occasional mole tattoo. Also in this county, all tattoo artists have to have a license. During the bureaucratic process, which takes about 2 months to get if you stay on top of things - the last step you take in getting your license is to do a short hearing. You’re in a room with all the other applicants - most of them being applicants for restaurant and bar owners getting their liquor license, and the occasional exotic dancer (yes, we are all clumped together, as if any of us have anything in common!). When it came my time, I was asked by the committee whether I would knowingly do a gang-related tattoo. I said I would not do it if I knew what it meant. Then they (a woman) asked if there was any body part that I would refuse to tattoo. I blushed and said i would rather not say out loud. They kept egging me on, ask if they wanted to humiliate me on purpose. I mumbled “the genital area”, and they finally let me go. I ran out of the courthouse as fast as I could. So… although there are no written laws, I’m sure there are some things that are frowned upon.
Some of Jenny’s favorite sites::
http://wristielove.blogspot.com/
http://suprachib.weebly.com/index.html
http://completewasteoftime.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/photoblog/
http://www.imaginismstudios.com/
Tattoo sites of interest for girls:
How I became a tattoed Lady (circa 1940’s) Jean Furella http://missioncreep.com/mundie/gallery/gallery6.htm
A great site focused on women and tattoos http://www.bellaonline.com/subjects/8922.asp
Famous Tattooed Ladies:
Nora Hildebrandt claimed her and her father were captured by Sitting Bull and taught to tattoo http://thehumanmarvels.com/?p=68
Betty Broadbent, exhibited at the Worlds fair of 1939 and inducted into Tattoo Hall of Fame 1981 http://thehumanmarvels.com/?p=148
Kat Von D , contemporary tattoo artist and star ok Miami ad LA Ink (TLC) http://www.katvond.net/
