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The Architect
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posts: 2,773
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Female tattoo fans wear 'sleeves'
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...l=991929131147
Quote:
Jessica Soos has always loved tattoos, especially from the '50s era. She has so many on her left arm that she is turning them into a sleeve.
That's the term for the full and partial arm tattoos taking over girl arms at a steady pace.
Step onto a patio, make a late-night trip to a downtown Dominion or walk along Queen St. W. on a warm weather day and you'll see a proliferation of beautiful women sporting these extravagant sleeves: an integral mix of colours and designs that, at their finest, run seamlessly from the top of the shoulder to the elbow and often continue down the forearm to the wrist.
The popularity of tattoos exploded in the early '90s and it doesn't appear to be slowing down. A study released Monday on the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology website suggests that 24 per cent of Americans between 18 and 50 are tattooed. That's almost one in four.
While no comparable study has been done in Canada, Damian McGrath, editor of ezine tattoos.com, recently searched for tattoo parlours and found 300 online listings in Ontario, up from 200 the year before. In Toronto, tattoo parlours are at least 30 strong compared to half a dozen 10 years ago, McGrath says.
The most recent addition, Black Line Studio, which just opened on King St. W., appears to be targeting the cautious crowd, those with blank canvases looking to make that first mark.
"It's self-propelling," says McGrath of the popularity of the medium, now a career choice for art school graduates. "The more people who see the good tattoos, the more people are getting them."
It's the hardcore addicts who are getting sleeves.
Twenty-one-year-old Jehn Philips's sleeve on her right arm started out with snowflakes on her shoulder. Six years and four artists later, the graphic snowflakes join a pierced heart inside her elbow and an eye-catching array of flowers that run down her forearm. The sleeve ends with the word "forget" at the wrist. On her left wrist, "forgive" is tattooed in the same cursive lettering. Her motto for life.
"I was introduced early," says Philips, an aspiring hairstylist, who got her first tattoo at 16. "My first boyfriend wanted to be a tattoo artist," she adds.
Pretty and petite, Philips admits, without revealing the number of tattoos she has so far, it's an addiction. "Artists always get better. You can go to the best and a year later you see his work again and it's even better and you want another one," she says, adding that as she gets older, each tattoo appears to get more painful.
"People who get sleeves already have significant tattoos. They know what they are getting into," says Kelly Mason, a tattoo artist for 10 years who works at Abstract Art on Queen St. W. and Lower East Side on Kingston Rd.
These women are typically between 20 and 30, and are going for the hard-core rocker-chick look.
Usually they are incorporating one tattoo or more into a sleeve. But some, like Mason, get the sleeve to hide an old, unwanted tattoo. Her partial sleeve is a tangle of red calla lilies with green and blue stems and leaves.
The explosion of reality television shows, as well as exposure from music and sports celebrities have all pushed the art into the public eye, making it more acceptable.
"It's improving, but there is still a stigma attached," says Mason. "If you are heavily tattooed, people still think you are a low-life."
She always encourages those who want tattoos to consider where they are going in life. A tattoo costs around $120 per hour, depending on the artist, and a complete full sleeve is in the $2,000 ballpark.
While the client may love it and consider it art, "It can be a career limiting move," says Mason. This is why she tells people to start with discreet tattoos that can be hidden under clothing.
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Hand over your flesh, and a new world awaits you
Tattoo Fans
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06-27-2006, 11:48 AM
