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by Cianni Jackson
Wallenberg High School, San Francisco
Yellow, aqua, lime, scarlet, orange: all the colors
of the rainbow flowing together forming a serpent that
seems to slither and slide down her body from her neck
to her toes, as she observes the exhibit, "Pierced
Hearts and True Love: A Century of Drawings for Tattoos"
at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco.
"I was watching television and I saw a dancing lady with a tattoo of a snake wrapped around her body," she said. "When I was 11 I told my mom that I wanted a tattoo like that lady but she said, 'No.'" Once Ambroisa became an adult she got the tattoo of her dreams.
The popularity of body art ebbs and flows like ocean waves. Its ancient heritage is surrounded by physical pain, the mental shock of being marked for life and personal rebellion which brought it into the mainstream in the 1920s. In 1996 many teens do whatever they can to get one.
Although California law states: Every person who tattoos or offers to tattoo a person under the age of 18 is guilty of a misdemeanor. The punishment for that crime may not exceed imprisonment for six months or a fine of $1,000.
In states such as Massachusetts and Oklahoma, tattooing is illegal. The reason: AIDS is still an incurable disease that can be passed through dirty needles. In order to operate legally, all tattoo shops must use sterile equipment.
Many tattoo artists go underground and work out of their homes if they cannot obtain a license. Patrick Jones from Drastic Changes Tattoo Studio in San Francisco said, "Underground artists make a bad name for professional tattoo shops. They have no proper training and they could give people diseases because they do not have properly sterile tools."
Tattoos have become a fashion statement judging by their growing popularity among teens and adults alike.
"Two days before my graduation I went and got a fake I.D. so I could get a tattoo. Since I was only 17 at the time, I was told that that was the only way I could get one," said Priscilla Alford, a 19-year-old SF State student.
Dave Bobrick, an employee at Goldfield Tattoo Studio in San Francisco said, "Teens are more nervous than adults because they are unsure and do it on the spur of the moment."
Some reasons for the spontaneous outbreak of tattoos among teens comes from its reputation among famous people. Sports celebrities such as Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman and Scottie Pippen of the Chicago Bulls all have tatoos and teens who idolize them want to get one too. "I got my tattoo because I'm kind of into body mutilation," Alford said. "But I would not go as far as putting holes in my body where they do not belong."
Polywog White, a woman who has tatoos all over her head said, "Getting a tattoo made me feel the empowerment I had over my body. I would highly recommend getting one."
The history of tatoos dates back to a 5,300-year-old frozen man found near Innsbruck, Austria with a cross behind his knee and lines on his back. In the 1880s, it became commonly known when upper class Americans would travel as far as Japan to decorate their bodies. The actual word "tattoo" comes from the Tahitian word "tatua," which means to mark the skin.
The working class adopted the art when tools became available. That sparked the big fetish for tatoos in the 1950's. Tattoo shops popped up like jack-in-the-boxes all over Coney Island. A picture of a well-endowed woman, a skull with cross bones and a little heart that read "Mom" could all be purchased for about $15. Now tatoos range from $20 and up depending on and where you go.
Undeniably, tattoos have become extremely posh because art galleries are now showing interest.
The most recent show, at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco, exhibits historical information. It displays drawings, Japanese woodblock prints, engraved acetate stencils, watercolor flash, historical photographs, tattooing equipment and vintage tatoos.
The presence of such a creative art form that uses the body as its canvas proves just why tatoos have overwhelmed the American
society for more than 100 years.
"Some use it for the beauty of the tattoo itself and others use it to cover up ugly scars or birthmarks," said Scheryl Saulsberry of San Francisco.