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Tattoos are in; embarrassment about them is out.
A new wave of tattoo artists, who run “studios” rather than "parlors,” say tattoos can be worn proudly, as a form of expression. Instead of hiding their tattoos under shirt sleeves, a new breed of customers is flaunting them, even going to the extreme of covering themselves in virtual body suits of color and pattern.
“Tattoos are about the last ' frontier of individuality,” said Dennis Watkins, one of at least 1,000 tattoo artists in the United States. “lust about everything, in this country has already been explored, so people are getting to know themselves.”
“Body Work” Cost* Extra
Getting to know oneself has a price, the National Geographic Society says. A single tattoo can cost $30 or $40. For those who choose to make a broader visual statement, such as a man who had his back covered with a tatjooed graveyard, the cost can go as high as $5,000.
Smokey Nightingale, a veteran Washington, D.C., tattoo artist who learned the trade from his mother, said: “I charge a $40 minimum for body work—that’s anything between the shoulders and the knees.” In that region of the body, he explained, the skin is looser, making for a harder-to-manage canvas.
Women have helped dissolve the tattoo taboo. After singers, such as Cher, Pearl Bailey, and the late Janis Joplin appeared with delicate tattoo designs, women around the country sought adornment of their own.
Now some tattoo artists say
85.5%