All Inked Up: A Look at Tattoo Culture.

As the glass doors open, a well-lit and clean waiting room awaits visitors and clients. The Ikea chairs surround a glass table with a wide array of art magazines, books and drawings; the smell of cleaning detergent and an aura of creativity welcomes the clients. Anyone walking into Permanent Ink Studio of Muncy, Pennsylvania would think they were in the wrong place for a tattoo.

This “studio,” a place where bodies come in one way and another, is “the nicest shit hole you’ll ever see,” well that’s what Verna Correll, a mom of a tattoo fiend, said.

Suzanne Hannan, owner, artist and tattooist of Permanent Ink Studio is a tattoo entrepreneur. When she moves just right and the jacket flows, you can see the semi-automatic pistol attached to her hip. The Pennsylvania native has tattooed all over the United States including Arizona, Louisiana and New Jersey, finally ending up with her own studio in Muncy, PA.

Hannan doesn’t look, sound or even smell like a tattoo artist. A tall thirty-something blonde woman with a constant smile on her face, she has no visible tattoos, always wears her motorcycle boots, black medical jacket and rubber gloves.

“With more and more tattoo shops popping up around here, there’s been some threats from different shops, its kind of like gangs, but just a lot more ignorant,” Hannan said. “I carry this thing because some asshole opened a shop in Montoursville and started talking shit to everybody, saying how this shop has dirty needles, that shop doesn’t use disinfectant, and it eventually got to the point he was just making threats to us, so I got myself a pistol and started practice shooting; now I’ll be fine.”

The rise of tattoo culture has stemmed from more than just the bikers we typically picture. In a sociological explanation, tattoos are “an idea of cultural relativism, or the idea that something can be understood only within the context in which it appears.” Dr. Nicholas J. Rowland, a sociology professor, said.

Rowland presents an entire lecture on tattoo culture to his Soc 001 class, examining and disassembling social norms, breaking them down to better understand.

“Fifty years ago, the only people who had tattoos were veterans, bikers and sailors; they were shitty, solid black tattoos that were more status than anything. You didn’t go around showing them off and bragging about them, they were just there,” Rowland said.

An article on the rise of tattoos called “Not Just for Bikers Anymore,” says “this change is a crucial element for new articles, since customers now are middle-class, educated and professional, family people.”

So what exactly do a sociology professor (a family person) and a tattoo artist (a biker) have in common? It could be the liberal attitude that backs the idea that tattoos are the future, but it could also be the willingness to explore the future of art, permanent body changing or simply, tattoos.

Tattoo culture is the new concept that young people are involved in a trend of permanently scarring their bodies with ink and needles as an art form. Stemming from Rowland’s idea of bikers, sailors and veterans, tattoo culture now exists on every level. Kids, fourteen, fifteen years old have easier access to tattoos, now more than ever.

“I got my first tattoo at the beach when I was a freshman in high school,” Ellie Freund, now a freshman at Westchester University, said. “It was easy, I went to the shop with my friends mom, she signed the paper and after that it was a few painful minutes and now I have this,” as she shows me the blue seahorse on her lower thigh.

Always invisible from parents, even in a bathing suit she assures me. But now that she’s out of the house, she has several more that she says, “my parents are going to have to deal with.”

In a poll taken in Rowland’s first soc 001 of the day, everyone in the room either has or knows someone personally that has a tattoo. There’s no distinguishing between those that have a tattoo and those that don’t.

“The only difference between a person that has a tattoo and a person that doesn’t is the people who do, know the pain is worth the outcome, others like to think they can handle it but if they don’t have a tattoo already, they never will,” Hannan said.

A bond exists between those in the tattoo world, sharing stories of why, how, when they got the tattoos. You see another guy with the same fraternity letters on his back, or the Zeppelin logo and there’s an instant connection.

A student in Rowland’s sociology class raised his hand when asked why people get tattoos.

“I get tattoos for myself. I don’t do it for anyone else. It’s a way to express myself, and I don’t care if nobody knows what they mean; I know that that mean and that’s all that matters, and if anyone has a problem with that, fuck them,” he said.

Rowland talks about “ethnocentrism,” or the idea that there is a tendency to use own group’s ways of doing things as yardstick for judging others. With both positive and negative outcomes of group loyalties, tattoo culture exists within more than 15 percent of the world population. There are numerous reasons for tattoos, ranging from the religious to the aesthetic and little evidence for some kind of universal tattoo culture. That’s what stimulates sociologists more than anything in this field.

The root of this rising ethnocentricity and culture is hard to conceive, but some feel that media portrayal of tattoos has a lot to do with the changes.

“The primitive style of tattoos has changed of traditional American tattoos but dismisses these in order to focus on the modern art-influenced styles favored by well known tattoo artists, DeMello, author of “Not for Bikers Anymore, said.

Put simply, DeMello feels that the original ideas of tattoos have transcended to modern pieces of art and like the greats such as Vincent Van Gogh and Leonardo DaVinci, the new celebrity artist is now a tattoo artist.

Rowland discusses how the trite and mundane tribal tattoos, Chinese symbols and stereotypical hearts with “Mom” inside are no longer the tattoos that are commonly asked for, but now its intricate, beautiful one of a kind pieces of art.
“Bodies are just a canvas for us,” Hannan said. “It means more to a person when you know it’s permanent, so they think it out and they come in and have every detail preplanned; it sounds frustrating but the work represents us as artists as well so we want our work done perfectly on the customer, who is basically a walking advertisement for me.”

DeMello’s article states, “Tattoos are counter-hegemonic in they ways that they challenge dominant notions about the body and how it’s used. Since tattoos had one reading in the past, derived from exclusivity in lower classes, what are the implications of this change?”

A common sociological concept that Rowland talks about is socialization and deviance. The idea of specialness occurs, trying to distinguish between others of the same kind looking for our own life, self and individuality.

“Individuality has become the new conformity; tattoos are no longer obsolete and centered around specific groups,” Rowland said. “Your doctor could have an entire sleeve under his lab coat and you’d never know unless you asked, that’s what’s so different about this culture.”

Tattooing has seeped into other mainstream cultures including the medical field. Hannan specializes in permanent makeup and paramedical tattooing for the greater Lycoming County area.

“Permanent makeup is the tattooing of eyeliner, lipstick, lip liner, etc. but paramedical tattooing is a more serious procedure; what I do is tattoo nipples back on breast cancer patients so they can regain a sense of wholeness,” Hannan said.

Hannan also can tattoo on prosthetic limbs or rebuilt areas of a patients body, such as freckles, moles or even hair. Not only has tattoo culture brought different classes and groups together but also can now bring a single person back together.

Tattoos in the media are an ever-growing trend, whether it’s portrayal in movies, music, literature, or even celebrity status.

“I interviewed many people for the many reasons they got a tattoo—aesthetics, individuality and personal growth and spirituality,” DeMello, said. “These reasons can be contrasted with the unspoken, but nevertheless understood reasons for why people used to get tattooed, i.e., they were drunk, it’s a macho thing, to fit in with the crowd, or even worse, for no real reason at all.”

Talking with young adults in the tattoo generation, generally those 18-25, all have a “friend who got so shit-faced and wanted to get his current girlfriends name in Latin on his back and it turns out it means penis in Spanish and they broke up the next month anyways” or some variation of this story.

So has the increase in tattoo culture also led to an increase in stupidity? Some may think so, usually parents and those older, less open adults.

“I just don’t get why the hell you have to ruin a body that I took so long to make strong and perfect the way it is; you go and deface yourself and all the hard work I put into it seems like it was for…shit, like it was for nothing,” Verna Correll, a mother of a tattooed son, said.

Hannan gets lots of worried parents in her studio, wanting to ask questions about the safety and wellbeing of their children. The rise of tattoo culture has led to this waxing and waning approval versus disapproval.

“The parents don’t want their kids to get tattoos, but if they must they want to make sure they get the best possible one money can buy, Hannan said. “It’s hypocritical that these parents come in, complain about their children misbehaving as they sign the permission forms to let me tattoo the same assholes they are complaining about.”

A major question that arises to the tattoo culture is, “what are you going to do when you get all old, wrinkly and sagging in parts you never thought could?” Despite the snide remarks, this is a valid question.

Comedian Christian Finnegan talks about the change in old people saying, “In 40 years, were going to be grandparent listening to Tupac, singing ‘bitch, bitch, hoe’ with our thug life and fuck bitches tattoos trying to tell our grandchildren not to do drugs or get involved in violence…I can’t wait.”

At Permanent Ink Studio, the beauty of tattoos comes in many forms. Hannan no only specializes in the permanent makeup and paramedical tattooing, but also is a professional cover-up artist. She can take the mediocre, mundane tattoos that are gotten on a whim and turn them into magnificent pieces of art.

“I’ve taken butterflies and turned them into entire back pieces; I’ve turned hearts into birds and turned ex-girlfriends names into skulls,” Hannan said. “Tattoos may be permanent, but only once they are perfect.”

Rowland has no tattoos, piercings, or even jewelry visible to his students, nor does he have anything covered up. “I used to have more earrings than I knew what to do with, but those are temporary; tattoos are a whole different level,” Rowland said.

The permanent idea of tattooing has transcended generations increasing exponentially. The idea of different people getting tattooed has been covered, as well as the change in quality. Another difference is these tattoos aren’t just for remembering anymore, they are a fashion statement as well.

“Musicians and actors now have tattoos as part of their wardrobe; it’s the media portrayal now that affects such trends,” DeMello said.
Entire sleeves of tattoos, chest and neckpieces and even facial tattoos are more prevalent than ever. Rapper Lil’ Wayne, took the teardrop tattoo concept, expanding to his entire face. He even tattooed a Frankenstein stitch across his forehead to remind himself that he’s his own monster.

Articles, ideas and interviews have all been compiled to form a thorough examination of tattoo culture, but the fact of the matter is, unless you are associated with the tattoo groups, there’s always going to be a missing aspect.

“You can’t talk about tattoos unless you have one,” Hanna said. “It’s like explaining to someone how to take care of a kid, but you have none of your own.”

This leaves the hint mystery to the entire tattoo world. Tattoo writers can interview just as many artists, shop owners and clients, but unless they know they personally know both the pain and pleasure derived from the experience, its unexplainable.

So your not a biker, a sailor or a marine; you can get a tattoo today; you can express your deepest, most creative side to the world or just to yourself in the mirror; you can be part of a culture that some will never accept as existing; you can be different or you can be unique; you can be yourself.

Tattoo culture: the exclusive group people share with permanent ink. So, are you in, or are you out?


Side note: As stated as an impossibility to write about tattoos and the culture without experiencing, the writer, M. Correll is a part of the culture with six tattoos all of significant meaning. He has invested his body, time and money into this culture and is proud to bring his expertise and ideas to the table in such a heated discussion.