Joy Rumore

For tattoo artist, work means leaving her mark every day
By C.J. Sullivan

As a child growing up in Stamford, Conn., Joy Rumore loved to draw
pictures on her arms. Her first permanent body art came at 16, when
she tattooed a small heart on her hip - strategically placed so her
mother wouldn't see it.

Today Rumore has more than 60 tattoos covering her body, and she draws
on arms for a living. Now 28, she became a tattoo artist after
graduating from SUNY Purchase, where she studied anthropology, and
became fascinated with the history of tattoos in tribal cultures.
After working shops in New York City and Rhode Island, she recently
opened her own place, Twelve 28 Tattoo, on Havemeyer Street in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Named after her birthday, the shop is neat and clean, with exposed
brick walls. On a table sits a portfolio book full of her designs,
which, as Rumore spoke about the ink trade on a recent evening, was
open to an image of a sad-faced Jesus looking down.

I always drew, and my mom was very supportive of it as I grew up. I
drew Mother's Day cards and cartoons or flowers or whatever looked
good. At school I would do funny drawings of my teachers and pass them
around to get a laugh.

I always drew on myself as a kid. I wanted drawings on my body since I
was young. I did my first tattoo at 16, then at 17 I got one on my
breast. That one I showed my mom, and she was less upset than I
thought she would be.

When I got my B.A. at 21, a friend of mine with a shop hired me as an
apprentice. I did all the dirty work, like cleaning up, setting up,
taking out the garbage, bandaging - everything but tattooing.

At 22, I got my license and started doing tattoos in Rhode Island.
Then a friend opened a shop in Brooklyn, so that brought me to New
York. After that I traveled a bit, then I came back and opened my
shop. It took a lot of work and money, but I'm happy with it. I get to
make my own hours, and I have the final say in everything. Everything
in this shop is me.

Everyone who comes in for a tattoo is a case study. Every social class
you can imagine walks in - and everyone gets a tattoo for a different
reason. Memorial tattoos are big, whether it's to celebrate a marriage
or to remember a death. Or you get an 18-year-old who says she's in
love with her boyfriend and they're going to be together forever -
then I see her a year later and have to cover it up.

I try to get people to listen to me on what will look good. I know
what will last, and what colors look better on certain skin tones. I
like talking to the customers. Rumore means noisy in Italian. I guess
it's true, because I like to talk.

In New York tattoo artists have to get a license. It's a three-hour
class on how to keep things hygienic. Afterwards you take a test.

If you want to do this work, you need to draw, draw and draw. Don't
think you can walk into a shop and someone is going to teach you how
to do their job. You need to have some skills and be serious about
it.

Tattooing is physically more demanding than people think. It can get
hard scrunching up your muscles in one position for a long time. But I
love my job. This work makes me happy. I couldn't see myself working
in a cubicle from 9 to 5. Here I have fun when I work. I keep Sunday
and Monday open only for appoinments in case I want to take a day off,
but I usually wind up working anyway. Drawing is what I wanted to do
since I was a kid, and here that's what I get to do. /copy and paste
from http://www.nypost.com/seven/06042007...__sullivan.htm

--
Curt

On Jun 4, 5:26 pm, Curt <curtja...@gmail.com> posted:
> For tattoo artist, work means leaving her mark every day
> By C.J. Sullivan

Attributions aside, you ARE violating copyright laws. Post a link to
the article.

Nimrod.


Kavin

Kavin Taylor wrote:
> Curt posted:
>
> > For tattoo artist, work means leaving
> > her mark every day
> > By C.J. Sullivan
>
> Attributions aside, you ARE violating
> copyright laws. Post a link to the article.
>
> Nimrod.

Actually, you're not even allowed to do that without permission.

Genius.

--
Curt

On Jun 4, 6:38 pm, Curt <curtja...@gmail.com> wrote:

(Concerning links)

> Actually, you're not even allowed to do that without permission.

Really? Provide the source.

Kavin

Kavin Taylor wrote:
> Curt wrote:
>
> (Concerning links)

No. Concerning creating NYP links.

> > Actually, you're not even allowed
> > to do that without permission.
>
> Really?

Who cares?

> Provide the source.

Read their terms of use. Or not. ;o)

--
Curt