East Meets West Tattoo Stories

The GlobalPost's look at tattoo culture in South Korea today and a look back on the forefathers of American tattoo culture on The Selvedge Yard.

Will have a double tattoo news review for you Monday as I've been working through the proofs (all 500 pages) of my book on blackwork this week, but I desired to highlight three news stories that I particularly enjoyed:

[No web searches and hook-ups back in my day. I also walked miles without shoes in the snow to get tattooed.]

Jiyeon Lee's photos and story of underground tattooing in Seoul jogged my memory lots of my own first tattoos when the art was still unlawful in NYC (it was legalized in 1997). Lee paints a picture of studios with "dark tunnel-like entrance with graffiti covered walls" that are found only after the "proper" steps are taken, which are set out: "first you run a search on the net, then you hook up with a tattooist who will guide you to a nondescript space, and finally you sit down for the unlawful procedure."

In South Korea today, only those with a medical license, like Kwon Yong-hyun pictured above, can legally tattoo, but with the increasing popularity of tattooing -- in part thanks to tattooed soccer stars that played at Seoul's 2002 World Cup -- tattooists think that regulation of the art is in the near future.

The post is an amazing collection of stories & archival pics of the tattoo parlors & the sailors & sideshow stars that frequented them. My favourite picture is of a service woman getting tattooed in the 50s, surrounded by other female soldiers.

With tattoo culture budding in South Korea, I enjoyed the juxtaposition of The Selvedge Yard's
look back on the evolution of American tattooing with a tribute to "Cap" Coleman & Paul Rodgers in their "forefathers of tattooing" post. Thanks to Jake for that link.

plenty of of the pics & other tattoo memorabilia were amassed by Paul Rodgers over the 60 years they tattooed; they had a stroke on that 60th tattoo anniversary & died six years later. In 1993, Chuck Eldridge, Ed Hardy, Alan Govenar & Henk Schiffmacher (Hanky Panky), created the Paul Rogers Tattoo Research middle to house the collection. That collection moved from Chuck's original Tattoo Archive home in San Francisco to where it is now in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Chuck said:

"If they can't discover a building here,we'll take the collection back to North Carolina. It's where Paul came from & would be the right thing to do. It would be like taking Paul home."

Tattoo Headlines

It's been a while since I did a major run down of the tattoo headlines, plus so to make it up to ya, i have monster review today -- one that begins with significant "milestone" tattoos plus ends above Khloe Kardashian's butt. I didn't say it was going to be a classy review but it will be meaty.

picture by Tom Wallace for The Star Tribune.

plus hell, Minnesota needs some positive tattoo news as one city, Watertown, has banned any new tattoo studio from opening up next year. Officials say, "We have nothing against tattoos" [followed by "some of my best mate are tattooed"?], plus that the ban is in place while they craft regulations for the industry. Currently, no professional tattoo studio exists in the city, so guess what usually happens in these cases: kitchen table scratchers plus dangerous tattoo parties fill the void. It's a mournful irony that rules meant to "protect the public" often finish up hurting people the most.

Let's start with the Minneapolis-St.Paul Star Tribune "permanent milestone" article, illustrated by the picture above plus other shots by Tom Wallace, including some silver haired foxes who look great in their tattoos, answering that oft-repeated utter foolishness, "What will you look like at 70?" Like that query, the article has its share of tattoo cliches as well but we'll let it slide as it positively looks at tattooing to mark moments in people's lives. I do know, we're all sick of the reality TV line that every tattoo has to have a narrative, but the actual reality is that lots of still get tattooed to commemorate a person or moment, plus the article reminds us art snobs of that.

Regulating the tattoo industry can be done without full-on bans. look at how Indiana tattooists are lobbying for stricter tattoo laws while their machines keep running. According to the Journal Gazette, somebody can buy a tattoo kit plus work underground, so professional tattooists are asking legislators to limit the sale of tattoo equipment in the state to licensed artists. they are also asking that positive requirements be met before a tattoo license is given. Those requirements, supported by the Alliance of Professional Tattooists, include the following: "a three-year apprenticeship, 1,200 hours of training plus 50 supervised procedures before granting a permit plus allowing an artist to work on the general public."

Tattoo News Review

Yesterday, sister Panik gave us his own (special brand of) review of the Star of arizona tattoo convention in Austin, but they wasn't the one offering reportage of the event. Austin 360 gave a play-by-play (and a small lame sideshow), while TV stations KRQE & Fox Austin posted short videos online of the show. I dig these photographs & speedy videos because they offer a glance at the scene, which helps choose what will be on my convention schedule next year.

Got your tattoo headlines right here, from convention coverage to tattoo law to a study that says we're all a bunch of "deviants." So think about this the freak edition of the Tattoo News Review & enjoy the sideshow.


With thousands attending these conventions worldwide -- & the media chasing after us -- you'd think that the debate whether "tattoos have gone mainstream" was thoroughly squashed, but a new study says otherwise.

The Bangkok International Tattoo Convention also got some nice coverage. Reuters took pretty photographs from the show including the one above, & CNN has a few nice shots as well. Sky News joined in with a video from the floor.

arizona Tech University's "Body Art Team" [real name] has found "The more body art you've, the more likely you're to be involved in deviance," according to the Chicago Tribune. The swat Body Art Team surveyed 1,753 students at three colleges & reported that the heavily tattooed & pierced drank more, did drugs more, had sex more & cheated in class more. [They add, "For low-level body art, these children are not any different from someone else."]

NBC news in Dallas also reported on the study & gave this reasoning behind the results:


"Because tattoos & piercings are so common, the researchers wondered if individuals who saw body art as more of a subculture would turn to deviant behavior to show they weren't part of mainstream culture. After all, having tattoos isn't rebellious anymore. Research suggests one in three people have a tattoo somewhere on their body."