Tatoo

  When I walk along the streets of Manhattan I often can see some people with different pictures on their skin. These permanent pictures are  called tattoos. They have different design and color and they are displayed in different parts of body. Tattoos are wore by people of different age, gender and religion. I never wanted to get tattoo, so I am always curious why do some people decide to  mark their body by tattoo?
I have read an interesting fact in the book, “Body art as visual language” by Erin Schildkrout, that people began doing tattoo about 12,000 years BC. So, what does force them to do pictures on their skin, why was tattoo so popular since that time to our days? I think that a good answer we can find in the “Total tattoo book” by Amy Krakow.  She says that tattoo “have appeared  throughout history as ritual art, pagan decoration, art to mark a rite of passage, art to inform, forbidden art, blue-collar art, popular art and erotic art”(2).  As I remember from my childhood in the Soviet Union, the most  people, whom I knew,  got tattoos in jails in 1960-s. As per Amy Krakow: “Elaborate Russian convict tattoos, which the men apply to each other, relate the prisoner’s life story in code” (55). Several years later tattoo became popular among the youth. Some boys came back from the military service with tattoos of military symbols. Their tattoos described where they have been, where served, what ranks they attained.  I think that young people like tattoo because they mark their body with some original picture, which differentiates them from others. Usually teens get tattoo , when they in the age they feel themselves independent,they think they become already adults.  It is like starting smoking and drinking alcohol. Again I can provide a citation of Erin Schildkrout, which proves my words:
Tattooing, piercing and scarification are more likely to be ways of signaling  one’s place in society, or an irreversible life passage like the change from childhood to adulthood.(12)
An interesting story how he got his own first tattoo describes William DeMichele in his book “The illustrated Woman”. When he was 21 he  was on his first trip to the west cost. It was his first trip without parents. And it was the first time he felt lost:
It was the 70’s and I was hitchhiking across America. When I hit San Francisco, the first thing I saw was Lyle Tuttle’s shop. After a lot of thought, I knew it was a right time for tattoo.(8)
Doctor David M. Deci in “The medical implications of body art” provides some statistical analysis people with tattoo. He admitted that, between 10% and 26% of adults are younger than 26 years old. As per his analysis: ”One university revealed that 23% of students had 1 to 5 tattoos… Among younger individuals today, 8% to 13% of those between the ages of 12 and 18 already have at least 1 tattoo, and 30% to 50% are contemplating one”(2).
Some group of people get tattoo that means their membership in some club or circle. Tattoo unites them. As per Erin Schildkrout: “Today in America the tattoo ritual of the same purposes, as you’ll see, for members of the military and certain clubs”(15).  And she provides proves that the “modern tattoo art combines the best elements of other art forms: religious, spiritual, inspirational, erotic, naturalistic, violent, abstract, popular or commercial art”(16). I’d like to admit that I did not see any Muslim person with tattoo. Probably, it restricted by their religion. I was not able to find any information regarding this issue.
Contemporary art includes body art as well. So, tattoo becomes an art. Erin Schildkrout says that “people in everyday life use body art to cross boundaries of gender, national identity, and cultural stereotypes”(10).  In our days many girls and young
women have pretty tattoos. Many popular movie stars, singers and celebrities have tattoos. In “Total tattoo book” by Amy Krakow:
These days, those little pictures are really ubiquitous. Madonna uses them  to shock in her film ‘Truth or Dare’(fakes) and in her book ‘Sex’ (real). Vogue and Elle magazine models flaunt them in photo shoots (Carre Otis’s tattoos are real, Naomi Campbell’s are temporary). Cher collect them. Roseanne Arnold featured her favorite tattoo artist on her television program. She and her husband, Tom Arnold, pledge their eternal love through them (as did Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder, and Mark Gastineau and Brigitte Nielsen).(1-2)
There are many books, catalogues, magazines, museums and exhibits devoted tattoo art in our days. As per Amy Krakow, tattoo were out of law in some states and cities in United States in 1960’s: “Bikers kept tattooing alive in 1960s, when the art was outlawed in so many states and cities”(64).  But today body art is very popular. As per Erin Schilkrout:
Most people think that permanent modification of the skin, muscles, and bones is what body art is all about. But if one looks at body art as a form of communication, there is no logical reason to separate permanent forms of body art, like tattoos, scarification, piercing, or plastic surgery, from temporary forms, such as makeup, clothing, or hairstyles.(25)
 I can list a number of magazines like “Tattootime”, “Tattoo Revue”, “Skin Art”, “Tattoo Expo” and many others. From time to time Tattoo Festivals and Conventions take place.
First National Tattoo Convention took place in 1976. There are several Tattoo Museums, Archive and Collections, among them are Triangle Tattoo and Museum in Fort Bragg, California and National Tattoo Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Tattooing is a business. Many tattoo shops make profit of doing their job. And prices vary from cheap tattoo to a very expansive masterpiece. An interesting fact, that permanent makeup is a tattoo. Per Amy Krakow:
Eyeliner, eyebrows, lipliner, full lip tinting, beauty marks. Even cheek color and under-eye concealer can be tattooed on, applied in much the same manner as makeup.(118)
Some people over time have come to regret their decision to engage in body art and they want to remove tattoo. Their reasons could be different: they become older and their tattoo seems them not appropriate or they changed their life style and so on.  As per doctor David M. Deci:
Removal techniques vary in cost and efficacy. Special cover makeup can provide an inexpensive and quick solution but lacks permanency. Injecting
new pigments into the existing tattoo will help camouflage some designs. Laser technology has made tattoo reversal more efficient and cosmetically acceptable.(2)
So, some people make tattoo because they like it, some people  follow its popularity, some people do it under influence of others. Tattoing is a fashion and many  women got tattooed following the latest fashion. Again as per Amy Krakow:
I like this tattoo mania. Instead of seediness, now there’s FASHION, FUN, STYLE, HISTORY, TRADITIONS and MONEY. Where once people turned away from tattooed folks, now they embrace us and what our tattoos represent.(143)
Tattooing is a form of art, practiced by people who proud of their work. Cosmetic tattooing seems the most important and least offensive form of tattooing. Cosmetic tattooing is acceptable by people who think about tattoing as an exotic means of expression.      

                Works Cited
Deci, David M. “The medical implications of body art”. Advanstar Communications, Inc., 2005
 DeMichele, William. "The Illustrated Woman".   Proteus Press, 1992.
 Fabius, Carine. “Mehndi”. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998.
Griffen, Karol. “Skin Deep: tattoos, the disappearing West, very bad men,
and my deep (Indent) love for them all”. New York: Harcout, Inc., 2003.
Krakow, Amy. “Total tattoo book”. New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1994.
Schildkrout, Erin. “Body art as visual language”. www.anthro.amnh.org