TATTOO VIEW : SKIN ART IS GETTING MORE INK--AND HIP HUGGERS AND CROPPED TOPS HELP SHOW IT
A fashion editor remarked that 1993 would be remembered as the year of tattoos. By the next year, she predicted, the fad would fade. But two years later, the desire among mainstream America to get inked is as widespread as ever. Yuppies, grandmothers, supermodels and super middle class folks are filling their local tattoo studios. And they are looking for a wardrobe that accents their skin art.
Even art institutions are taking a closer look at this art form as evidenced by Laguna Art Museum’s opening Saturday of “Eye Tattooed America.” The exhibit, which runs through Oct. 8, reviews tattoo’s cultural and aesthetic role, and features photographs, paintings, sculpture and etchings by contemporary tattoo artists.
Nearly every culture has a tradition of skin art. Dating back thousands of years, it serves as more than ornamentation. Markings have signified social standing, celebrated maturing age and the onset of puberty.
Europeans fashion-seeker in the 18th century used tattoos to imitate eyeliner, darken eyebrows and redden lips.
Whether it’s permanent makeup or permanent symbolism that’s being sought, today’s tattoos--which start at $40--are increasing in numbers.
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Nike chairman Phil Knight’s recent acquisition of the athletic wear company’s signature swoosh on his left ankle marked an ever deeper impression into our cultural skin. Tattoos’ perception as the stuff of sailors, bikers and marginal segments of society has been forever altered, as has the notion that they are the creative privilege of rock and film stars.
While there are still those who consider tattoos personal, better left unexposed to public view, many opt for a wardrobe that highlights their carefully placed artwork.
Antoinette Dorst, 28, of Huntington Beach, doesn’t try to hide her two, waist-level tattoos at work or school. She is a waitress at a popular downtown haunt and a nutrition major at Orange Coast College.
“A tattoo is completely acceptable now. If it shows--and it usually does if you live Southern California--it doesn’t matter,” she says. “It might shock the older generations, but people who came of age in the last two decades are very accepting.”
Dorst got her first tattoo four years ago. It’s on her back and depicts a tribal-style phoenix and doves, inked by Los Angeles artist Shawn Kama.
Not everyone approved. Dorst’s modeling agency dropped her, an incident she laughs at, considering that super-models’ Christy Turlington and Carre Otis now have tattoos.
Her second tattoo, created last year by Eric Mitchell of Laguna Tattoo, is of three colorful plumeria flowers in memory of a dear friend who died in Hawaii. “I put thought into what I get,” says Dorst. “It is art. I don’t want to walk around with just anything.”
Eileen Byrne, 25, recently had a celestial vignette lined in black placed on her lower back by Sean Smith of Skinworks in Balboa. A sun represents her mother; a crescent moon, her dad; and three stars signify her two sisters and herself. “I wanted to have something that would mean having my family with me always,” says the Fountain Valley resident and medical student.
Philipa Adamson, 28, of Laguna Beach, works as a nanny for the three small children of a program director for a major network. Her employer is aware of her tattoo--delicate flowers and twisting vines--etched into her shoulder blade by Raygun’s Craig Cristy.
So is her best friend, who has chosen a strapless maid-of-honor dress for Adamson.
“I’m more conscious about revealing my body than my tattoo,” Adamson says. “[Getting the tattoo] hurt like hell, so of course, I’m going to show it off. It’s really beautiful.”