Branded for Life: Tattooing and Social Status

Tattoo Tracker — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:09:48 +0000

Twelve thousand years has not altered the cross-cultural implications of tattoos. From the jungles of Borneo to dorm rooms at Harvard, their implications remain the same. Tattoos have always signified status.
In Indochina, a woman’s forearm tattoos made them desirable for marriage. Various designs demarked the wearer’s station in life. Rich women wore delicate arm tattoos that looked like expensive gloves women buy today at Bloomingdale’s. Warriors’ tattoos on showed how many lives they had taken in battle. Tattoos commanded respect and assured their wearers status for life.
Today, tattoos signify some personal trait or membership in either clan or society. The Hells Angels jealously guard their tattoo. Secret societies do the same. The aura of mystery and secrecy pervades the tattoo wearer whether they repel or attract us. Whatever our reasons for asking, the question remains: “What ARE they wearing? And WHY?”
Some believe a tattoo wearer possesses the spirit of his “dragon, eagle or flower.” William Blake might have said the ferocity of the Tyger belongs to others. Today, tigers, snakes, and bird of prey stalk unchecked in out midst. We might want to be careful whom we antagonize.
Mediterranean civilizations used tattoos for espionage, slavery and the demarcation of crime, a filthy practice that continues to this day. Japanese girls were tattooed as rite of passage to womanhood and the Japanese tattoo assumed a religious significance.
Western cultures have tattooed family crests for centuries. Pope Hadrian banned tattooing in 787 AD but thrived in the British Isles until the Battle of Hastings, 1066 AD. William the Conqueror forced its disappearance from Western culture till the 16th century.
Yet tattoos thrived in Japan, notably for marking criminals. First offenses carried a line across the forehead. The second, an arch and the third, another line – the Japanese character for “dog” – The start of the: “Three strikes and you’re out law.” The Japanese tattoo became an aesthetic art form with the “body suit”, a social reaction to strict laws. While royalty alone were allowed to wear ornate clothing, nothing stopped the middle class from wearing elaborate full body tattoos that left the naked considered “well dressed”.
American tattoos were born in Chatham Square, New York City; a seaport and entertainment center attracting the affluent and the working class. Tattoo artists grew in respectability and so too did the tattoo, flourishing as artist husbands tattooed their wives with their work and became their billboards. Cosmetic tattooing meshed with cheek blush, lipstick and eyeliner. Cardinals’ fans might want to investigate Jim Edmonds.
After World War I, tattoos began to symbolize bravery and wartime solidarity. With the Prohibition and Depression, tattoos became travelers’ markers telling the story of where the wearer had been.
Post World War II America became disenchanted with the tattoo by its association with delinquency. Tattooing had little respect in American culture. The 1961 hepatitis outbreak all but destroyed any positive status the tattoo had earned.
Lyle Tuttle changed the American attitude toward tattoos in the late ‘60s with media savvy and tattooing celebrity women. Scores of magazines rushed to him for information about this ancient art form.
Toady, tattoos are more popular than they ever were. All classes of people seek them and the tattooist is considered a “fine artist”. Political consultants, actors and baseball players wear them – proudly or sheepishly – but wear them nonetheless. While the status tattoo wearers enjoy is certainly less clear than it was a thousand years ago, the status the tattoo itself enjoys is a popular, if confused one.

Aging Tattoos

Tattoo Tracker — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:31:45 +0000

Although there have been many technological advances in tattooing, tattoos will always age as the skin ages. Genetics, environment and lifestyle combine to determine both the skin’s long term health and the appearance of a tattoo. Even with fastidious care, aging skin tissue loses moisture and elasticity. A tattoo on dry skin with diminished elasticity will fade and its contours will soften.

The more fine detail work in the tattoo’s design, the more it will change when the skin ages. Faded and softened tattoos do not show detail or shading as well, and the smaller the tattoo the more pronounced the effect. For that reason, large tattoos tend to age more gracefully than smaller, intricate designs. Bolder and larger pieces hold up to changes over the years. Trendy, bold tribal tattoos will change very little over time, whereas small, elaborate designs with fine line shading are likely to change dramatically.

Just as prolonged exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays can cause dramatic, irreversible and sometimes deadly skin damage, they also accelerate damage to body art. Sun exposure speeds up line or color decay. Black ink is particularly sensitive to sun exposure. Some black inks fade to gray with extended sun exposure, while others take on a bluish tinge. Occasionally, whites and light yellows disappear if the skin is badly sunburned.

One of the key threats to an aging tattoo design does not alter the tattoo itself but is a very real consequence of a simple fact of life – weight fluctuations. The speed of weight gain or weight loss, skin moisture and tattoo placement all influence how well a tattoo withstands weight gain. The more slowly the weight fluctuates, the more skin retains its elasticity. Moisture also helps skin to retain its elasticity.

The way a tattoo reacts to weight gain varies widely from person to person, because it depends on where the person carries his or her weight. Areas where the skin remains more taut or areas that have more muscle will hold the design better than sagging or fatty areas. Although most tattoos will change shape when the skin is stretched or contracted, torso tattoos are arguably the most susceptible to irreparable damage after weight gain.

A tattoo artist’s skill and equipment can change a tattoo’s long term durability. A well trained tattoo artist can bring considerable craftsmanship to the boldest and simplest tattoos. There is a wide variety in the resilience of tattoo inks as well. Tattoo inks consist of simple carbon particles. The carbon base usually comes from burnt wood, cotton, vegetables, India or pen ink and plastic. Professional artists have access to more than 100 different colors.

Ink manufacturers are not required to list the composition of their products, so tattoo artists may not know the base of their chosen ink. Nevertheless, plastic based inks are heavily marketed for their relative colorfastness and permanence. Unfortunately, plastic based inks are also more likely to cause allergic reactions.

Though there was no documented study available at the writing of this article, it makes since that the technological advances in skin care could be beneficial to prolonging the life of your tattoo. The age-fighting trend is enormously popular in the cosmetic industry these days. Virtually every major brand is getting in on it. There are all kinds of products claiming to lift, firm and unwrinkled the skin. Some of them even claim to slow down, stop or even reverse the aging process. Most of them really do work to some degree. If it makes the skin on your face look better, why wouldn’t it make your tattoo look better as well?

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Branded for Life: Tattooing and Social Status

Aging Tattoos