Tattoos

Sat in the waiting room of Forever Wear Tattoos, my girlfriend and I stick out like sore thumbs. In the corner is an easel displaying a painting of Corey Taylor from Slipknot, mask and all, staring intimidatingly out at the customers. A Five Finger Death Punch flag hangs from the walls, there are skulls adorning every surface and the sounds of Limp Bizkit rise out of the studio below us. On the coffee table are magazines displaying similar stuff; scary looking men with tribal tattoos, scantily clad ladies with roses inked onto their breasts and all the other familiar images of tattoo culture: motorcycles, eight balls, hearts with “Mom” written on them. A small Indian art student and her curly haired boyfriend just don’t fit into this image well.

The scene couldn’t be more different from the one the night before, when a few of our friends were gathered around my kitchen table for a dinner party. Eating cheese, drinking red wine and talking over our courses and workload; it was a far cry from the prisoners, sailors and circus freaks tattoos are so commonly associated with. And yet there we were, with half a dozen tattoos between us. There was the flaming eye on my wrist that Alex Grey designed forthe Lateralus album cover, there was the square within the circle that featuresbehind the Vitruvian man, there were dinosaur skulls and South-American statues. What I’m trying to say is that something in the culture surrounding tattoos has changed.

My anecdote isn’t exceptional by any means. A survey by Harris Interactive showed 28% of middle-class people admitting to at least one tattoo (compared with 27% of working-class people) and women now sport more tattoos than men. What was once seen as an act of rebellion or a defiant expression of individuality is shifting to something much tamer.

That’s not to say the core ink-culture is collapsing or anything, the quantity of tattoo magazines and the parlours décor all point to those sorts of audiences and designs being well alive. Instead, what interests me is this new, artier trend in tattoos amongst younger people.

After a brief look through the tattoo tag on Tumblr, a number of new motifs become apparent. Mandalas, owls, planets, dream-catchers and cats feature as prominently as skulls and crossbones. There are a whole bunch of left-field designs too. A lot of them would fall into what I guess you would call “hipster-chic”; batman in a Van Gough painting, a corgi with a sci-fiheadpieces and many, many moustaches. But a lot of them are just refreshingly individual. One, entitled “sacred geometry” depicts a number of colourful shapes and arrows overlapping. Another, titled “Science, Art and Philosophy” is a stunning piece featuring Aristotle, Da Vinci and Confucius (I think . . .).

If I were to put my sociology cap on and think of an explanation for this, I’d probably point to the changing values of kids today that puts more weight on art and fashion and the increasing importance taste is given in a world over-loaded with information.

I love my tattoos and even promised myself I will get another if I ever get into shape (so probably not then). However, I didn’t give my job prospects too much thought when I got my wrist tattoo, and I’m becoming increasingly concerned it’s going to hurt my career prospects. While the culture amongst the young has changed, old conceptions remain in the workplace. It’s not so bad when the tattoos are hidden, but regularly explaining the third eye to people is a sure-fire way to make yourself seem like a twat. On the other hand, it’s nothing I can’t cover up with a watch and worst comes to the worst removing them isn’t prohibitively expensive anymore. None the less, even as tattoo culture approaches something resembling acceptability and a new scene emerges that fits people like me, I think I’ll put the next one somewhere I can cover with a blue shirt.