Why is that when women have certain body parts tattooed it unfolds all sorts of negative and stigmatised reactions? But when men get these places tattooed it’s acceptable – even admirable.
“I recently told a friend that I am booked in to get a tattoo on my arm, this will be my first in such a visible spot! The rest are on my legs, foot and shoulder – all hidden away in the wintery months. She hastily asked where I was getting said tattoo, responding that my inner forearm will be decorated and covered with a Chinese lantern design she physically sighed with relief. ‘Oh Good’ she exclaimed, ‘You’d look really butch if it was on your upper arm, women with tattoos there look awful!’ Meaning that I would look less feminine and my body would no longer be seen as socially acceptable. Many women including my friend hold the view that women who decide to be tattooed should choose designs that are small, discreet and pretty- everything that society deems a woman to be!
“My friend, although rude, was merely representing the common thoughts of society in which women and men are expected to act and look in certain ways. She, like many, sees a distinct difference between the limbs of men and women and how these should be adorned.
“I personally also believe that her opinions are based on the body type and size of the woman bearing the tattoos; I am not the owner of svelte, toned arms and possibly if I was a smaller woman a tattoo on my arm would not be an issue. Alternative models and popular Suicide Girls, with their toned, lean bodies and large spattering of tattoos could never possibly be called butch because of their body art. It is their conformity with the prescribed womanly body shape which saves them from being labelled as masculine.
“The world is sizest and other women are so critical of each other, that it is easy to see where my friend’s opinions have come from. Indeed I am sure that we are all guilty at some point or another of looking down on other tattooed women, maybe you disliked the subject they chose, the artistic measure of their tattoos or indeed the limb on which it has been inked.
“Although I tend to disagree with my friend, she is not alone in her thoughts. All tattooed women, simply by bearing ink are constantly fighting to overturn the media and socially created view of tattooed women and the negative traits that they are constantly branded with. Have you been faced with negative reactions from other women? Or have men been the ones to cast a judging eye?
“But the new found love for my colourful body as it becomes more and more covered in wonderful imagery will prevail. Ultimately if you are happy in your inked skin then that is all that matters.”
KMFDM has been one of my favourite bands for more than 20 years, so getting the chance to see them live (again) and spend most of the day hanging out chatting about tattoos and music was wonderful fun. On October 28th, I took the day off work, packed my camera bag and headed to Toronto, to the Phoenix Concert Theatre. Kapt’n K, Jules, Andy and Steve, along with the crew and the opening band, CHANT, which that night was Bradley Bills alone (passport issues kept his bandmate in the US), were so lovely and a real joy to sit and share stories with. Then there was the music … absolutely sublime. Best birthday present EVER!
What you will find below are the complete transcripts of Jules, Andy, Steve and Bradley, on how tattoos have modified their lives. Listening to these guys tell stories is what inspired me to write about lived experience, since they so clearly demonstrated it. At the bottom of the blog is a gallery of all the shots I took that day. Click on the image to see it bigger and with some details. I’ve also included some tattoo pics of KMFDM crew members David and Josh in the gallery as well. It’s everything I couldn’t squeeze into my article (found in Things & Ink #6: The Modification Issue). Enjoy! ~Kimberly
-Jules Hodgson-
I came quite late to the tattoo game, so my first one wasn’t until 2000. A “tribal” on my right arm that was done in Japan by Permanent Mark. After its completion it was clear that I had gotten what looked like a tribal version of the old Kellogg’s corn flakes rooster. I’m in the process of having the covered up. The piece of flash on my upper right arm was done a year or two later at a shop in Tampa, FL while on tour with KMFDM. I recall Steve getting something done at the same time.
Next up was the glorious back piece that was done by my ex girlfriend who was apprenticing at a shop here in Seattle (where I live). I thought it would be novel to combine the”diamond” logo (Pig being the band that myself, Andy and Steve were in prior to joining KMFDM) with the fist symbol from the kmfdm “symbols” album. The addition of flames also seemed like a grand idea. The fact that she and I were in the process of splitting up and it was her first tattoo on something that wasn’t a grapefruit didn’t deter us from going ahead with the plan and the results speak for themselves!
The line work on my left arm is about 6 years old and I’ll complete the sleeve one day. It’s a bio-mechanical “twisted metal” thing that I’m sure is going to look amazing when I find the time and money to complete it. It was done by Jesse Roberts at Lucky Devil Tattoos in Seattle.
Most importantly, and most recently I’ve been covering up the “tribal chicken” with a more traditional roses and cobra sleeve. It’s a thinly disguised band tattoo – mine and Andy’s other band The Spittin’ Cobras. So as not to mislead your readers, it’s not industrial in any way. Think more punk/metal/hard-rock-n-roll. Sort of Motorhead vs AC/DC vs Judas Priest on PCP! How was that for a shameless plug? HaHa!
I’m really excited to get this finished. It’s being done by good friend Chani Murat, owner of Good Karma Tattoos in Edmonds, Washington. Every time we’d see each other she’d rib me about getting my tribal chicken covered up, so we got to it and started on my sleeve a wee while ago. Next up is going to be a heart and banner with my dog’s initials on my right wrist, and after that, who knows? Probably not another tribal chicken, though…
-Andy Selway-
I started getting tattooed at about age 14 or 15, at a tattoo shop in Ipswich, UK. Me and a friend saved up lunch money, about £5 each, and went to this back alley shop. These were little flash. Most are now covered over by other bigger tattoos. I had an uncle, one of my dad’s brothers – uncle Arthur – had a prison tattoo. Few playing cards on his arm. I saw them and I just wanted them. Always wanted to fill up.
God, the early ones were awful, so needed to cover up and go bigger and bigger. Then just had to fill up the rest when the empty spaces were noticed. Once you fill arms, chest and such, might as well do your back … and then you’re full.
Many are tour mementos – tattoos as tour souvenirs and band tributes (Swine, Pig, KMFDM, etc.) when tattoo artists are willing to do them for free. My left forearm, this 3-headed purple thing was by a fan boy. Got it 2 days till end of the tour. Started it – 1.5hrs – immediately prior to going on and drumming – and 1.5hr after playing. Beyond painful. You know Andy, Jules and I have been present for each others tattoos (most of them). Since 1997 or so we’ve been together (1996 he and Steve were in PIG, then Jules came in 1997). I gotta mention these guys too, for my tattoos and other art:
Dan Gold, Astronaut guy on my arm, London Ink (Graffiti artist, Denmark)
Artist for cobra tattoos & Spittin’ Cobras band logo – Mark ‘Firehazzard’ Hodgkinson, he has a website and Facebook
Bones Lininger (my cobras tattoo) Fort Lauderdale, Bones Tattoos & Barbers (shop no longer exists?) – now an independent artist in Florida. I have plans to see him for a big back piece and some touch-up work on other tattoos
So, briefly I suppose living and growing up in London UK in the 80’s I wasn’t aware of Tattoo art, as virtually nobody had anything other than the odd prison/ school yard pin and ink (cue Skinheads with a spider’s web and tear on their faces). The art hadn’t really developed as it has today, so apart from the odd aged roadie or biker at a rock festival there were no peers.
When Jules, Andy and I toured the US in ’97 as Pig supporting KMFDM we became more aware of the advanced US development of Tat Art . We wore suits onstage in those days so we were protected from revealing our virgin flesh. Andy, I remember, had a couple of coloured scabs that he insisted were Tats and he eventually had a tour tat that turned sceptic and peeled. Not a particularly enticing experience for Jules and I so we didn’t give them much more thought. Eventually it became apparent to me that this tour was fast becoming the time of my life and the only fitting memento would be an indelible one… A few years later and now on tour as KMFDM , it didn’t take us long to find a keen fan boy artist in Tampa to deliver our first ink. I rushed the decision and chose some colourful flash. He proceeded, while I gently snoozed, to choose olive-green as the only hue his colour blindness could register. I awoke from the tour fatigue and the gentle stabbing of the needle (quite a soporific experience despite what others warned ) to find a large bloody, verdant smudge on my upper arm. However, despite my disappointment at the shoddy needle – work, I gushed like a teenager onstage that evening, with my cellophane, bandaged arm, dripping and bloody a true rock ‘n roll badge of honour. Not one known for succumbing to peer pressure, I felt I had captured the essence of my foreign adventure and never missed a photo opportunity to show it off.. Ha! What did I care if it more resembled a piss stain on my Khaki pants than a multi-coloured, fire-breathing Dragon?
These days teenagers with full sleeves and full chest pieces (and that’s just the women), have made me a little more wary, not to mention the huge hourly rate increases due to said popularity. However I’ve collected a few and still catch myself staring longingly at others ink and I feel good to be part of the experience . But unless we start selling truck loads of records again or that colour-blind fan boy from Tampa calls me, that will be all for now …
(Dragon, upper left arm) Jesse Roberts, Dark Age Tattoo, Seattle, WA
It definitely enriched my life experiences for the better. As a musician, it’s always wonderful to share the experience of writing music with another musician, so likewise, as an artist or even a human who loves art – when you get tattooed, you are sharing that art experience with the artist in a very open, intimate, and personal way – especially if it is custom art and represents something of deep meaning in your life – like my larger pieces (the Dragon and the Whale). But, another great thing about tattooing and art is that it doesn’t ‘HAVE’ to be all serious and full of deep meaning. Art is FUN, and like the silly anchor I have on the back of my leg, it was a fun and liberating experience to run get something with some friends so we had something to share. If I never got ‘inked’ then that would be fine, but then I wouldn’t have these experiences.
For ‘Tattoo credits’ – here are the shops and artists in Austin, TX who worked on my big pieces:
New guest blog post from Christina Owen featuring the cutest little Russian doll tattoos I have ever seen…here is the story of Christina and Jess’s matching tattoos.
Christina and Jess
My friend Jess and I live a couple of hundred miles apart. She lives in Cardiff, I live in London. We work busy schedules and we don’t get to see each other much. We also both love tattoos and don’t take ourselves too seriously. So when I found time to go and see Jess for a couple of days in June, we decided the best course of action would be to get matching tattoos, for no other reason than because we are great friends, and because it will remind us that we’re always there, even though most of the time we’re, er…not.
It’s common for couples to get matching tattoos, but what about the ‘buddy tattoo’ (I may have just coined that phrase…)? When Lord of the Rings finished filming in 2002, the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring got matching Elvish tattoos. Earlier this year, Adele and Joy Williams from The Civil Wars got a tiny matching friend tattoo after being on tour together.
Our friends mean the world to us. And we express that in different ways. Jess and I chose a little, girly Russian Doll tattoo, for no other reason than because we LIKED it (and that’s reason enough). Some of our friends shook their heads at us and called us silly, but to us (and to every girl out there who loves tattoos and is comfortable in her own – colourful – skin) it made perfect sense.
Jess headed to Physical Graffiti in Cardiff and spoke to Tasha Pollendine, whose cute and colourful style of tattoos we had looked up online and loved. Tasha drew us a pair of gorgeous pink matching dolls based on a picture Jess showed her. All that was left was for me to take the National Express to Cardiff and for us both to jump in the chair…
While we had our tattoos done, we both chatted to Tasha who was easygoing, friendly, patient and very talented. I grilled her, interview-style on how, why and when she got into tattooing, and made her snort with laughter and have to stop tattooing me at one stage, when I asked her if she’s ever sneezed and accidentally drawn a huge ink line down someone’s arm (probably better not to put a tattoo artist off like that when they are making permanent marks on your skin, guys). The atmosphere in the shop was relaxed, and we spent a fun couple of hours talking to the other tattoo artists and customers. Jess and I chose to have our tattoos in different places on our bodies (a nod to our own individual personalities) – she chose the back of her left ankle and I chose the back of my right upper arm.
I’m back in London now, and don’t know when I’ll see Jess next. But I now have mini-Jess on my arm to remind me that distance doesn’t really matter – good friends will always make time for one another.
I think that Mini-Jess is definitely the cutest tattoo in my collection so far. Thanks Tasha – I’m sure I’ll be back to get tattooed by you again!
I am very excited to announce the introduction of a new guest blogger – Christina Owen. She is a Th’ink feature girl and tattoo collector. Here are her thoughts on women and tattoos.
Tattoos and the women who love them
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about women and tattoos, and what it is we love about them, and how they compliment or juxtapose our femininity, what they add to us and what they might take away.
I read this article in the Daily Mail by Alex Blimes, which, while written in 2008 (before LA Ink hit our screens and suddenly everyone was going crazy over Kat Von D) was nonetheless published in a time where tattoos (on men and women) had never been more popular. And the article implies (in fact, it doesn’t even imply. It SAYS) that tattoos on women are unsexy, badly thought out and representative of nothing other than a vague hankering to be like a celebrity with a crazy lifestyle. I wondered if this woman had ever had an intelligent conversation with someone like you or I?
And so I decided to defend our position. Research wise, I didn’t know where to begin. And as I’m not as scientist, or a historian, I decided to ask my friends what they thought. Smart, professional men and women in our twenties, thirties and forties, most of whom have tattoos and none of whom regret them. Their thoughts were many and varied and they seemed to respond to many different questions about tattoos that I hadn’t necessarily asked, but that nonetheless come up in everyday life.
This is what they said:
“All mine have personal meanings to me. Also, personally ,once I had the first one I found them addictive . I don’t care what people think about me or my tats, I got them for me and if people want to judge you cause you have them, that is their problem.”
“I was very excited to make the transition from non-tattooed lady to tattooed lady. I’ve always found good tattoos beautiful and fascinating. For me, it’s about getting a good piece of art. It doesn’t necessarily have to have a meaning (although mine does), I just want it to be a great piece of work that I will always own and will just be mine. Even if I don’t always hold much to the meaning, good art doesn’t suddenly become bad art.”
“When people say the tattoos will look horrible when I am old, I think that when I’m old(er) I’ll have varicose veins, paper thin skin that bruises and tears every time I bang into the door frame and I won’t use the upstairs of my house as it will take two hours to get up and two hours to get my breath back. If my mental capacity has deteriorated badly enough then I’ll probably look at the tattoo on my arm and wonder whose arm that is. It’s likely that I’ll faint when I stand up and if I drop anything, I ain’t picking it up as I’ll be going over myself – I suspect that how my tattoos look, will be the least of my worries !”
“Chicks with tattoos are HOT !” (Okay, most of us are smart too!)
“Tattoos are just a way of adorning your body and modifying it.”
“Tattoos on women, if done well, look amazing to me, and I try my best not to judge anyone based on their ink.”
“With my first tattoo I do remember distinctly lying in bed that night thinking “Oh good god I’ve permanently scarred myself…” but I knew it was the right thing to do. That first one was a little bit about being free from all of the ‘What ifs?’ and so part of why I had it was to deal with that moment of panic. I suppose I wanted to give myself something I could deal with, to try and show my stubborn brain that if I am happy with something (or some part of me or my personality) then it doesn’t matter what anyone else might think. And future be damned because we can’t plan everything. Sometimes you just have to jump in and hope for the best and not spend your whole life worrying about what will happen if you do something and it’s wrong.”
Nowadays there are so many different interpretations of what is attractive that does it really matter to one person if another is covered in tattoos? For so many of us, it isn’t just mindless and it’s not just a whim. We’ve thought about it, we love it and we love how having tattoos makes us feel.
“I recently told a friend that I am booked in to get a tattoo on my arm, this will be my first in such a visible spot! The rest are on my legs, foot and shoulder – all hidden away in the wintery months. She hastily asked where I was getting said tattoo, responding that my inner forearm will be decorated and covered with a Chinese lantern design she physically sighed with relief. ‘Oh Good’ she exclaimed, ‘You’d look really butch if it was on your upper arm, women with tattoos there look awful!’ Meaning that I would look less feminine and my body would no longer be seen as socially acceptable. Many women including my friend hold the view that women who decide to be tattooed should choose designs that are small, discreet and pretty- everything that society deems a woman to be!
