Those graphic adornments!

Tattoos aren't just for drunken sailors these days

By Cathy Jett

Sean Kelly never knows who'll pop into Spark Plug Tattoo & Body
Piercing.

One day it might be a youth minister who wants to get praying hands
tattooed on his arm; the next, a 62-year-old woman who wants a
butterfly on her hand.

"I've had judges, lawyers, nurses, doctors. You'd be surprised," said
Kelly, who works in the small George Street shop in downtown
Fredericksburg.

Tattoos, those graphic adornments inked into the skin, are becoming
more mainstream thanks, in part, to athletes and celebrities as well
as the TV shows "Miami Ink" and "Inked."

Wesley Moore is so convinced that college students, tourists and area
residents will want them that he recently opened Sorry Mom Tattoos in
the heart of downtown Fredericksburg's shopping district.

"Miami Ink has had a big impact on tattooing," said Moore, whose shop
is in the former Redfern & Sons at 808 Caroline St. "That gives it a
positive name. People see who is getting them and why, and it's
getting socially accepted."

Most people getting tattoos today aren't sailors on a bender who wake
up the next morning with a battleship emblazoned on their chest,
Fredericksburg-area tattoo artists say. Instead, customers typically
come in wanting to mark a significant moment in their lives or
memorialize a loved one.

Several people recently went to Spark Plug to get the same fallen-
soldier tattoo after a relative was killed in Iraq, for example. And a
woman went in to get a portrait of her late father tattooed on her
chest.

"It was really rough because she looked in the mirror afterward and
started crying," said tattoo artist Jeremiah Hirsch. "She said: 'He
was always in my heart. Now he's where I can see him.'"

16 percent have tattoos

According to a 2003 Harris Poll, the most recent source available, 16
percent of all adults in the United States have at least one tattoo.
Americans ages 25 to 29 made up 36 percent of the total, and those
ages 30 to 39 accounted for 28 percent.

Those statistics are borne out by Fredericksburg-area tattoo artists,
who say the majority of their customers are in their 20s or younger.
However, koi fish, which are a Japanese symbol for good luck, and
other images are catching on with people in their 30s and 40s.

Occasionally, they'll even get someone old enough to be their
grandparent. One of the oldest to request a tattoo at Spark Plug was a
72-year-old former Navy man who wanted an anchor in memory of his
military days. His wife had never wanted him to get one, so he waited
until after she died, Hirsch said.

These days women are as likely as men to get tattoos, but they differ
in what they want and where they want them, area tattoo artists say.
While a man might go for a big, bold design on his arms, legs or upper
back, a woman is more likely to get dainty butterflies, fairies or
flowers tattooed at the base of her spine, on her foot or next to a
hip bone.

"It's just something that, when they want to show it, they can, like
when they wear a bikini," Moore said.

Tattooing is one of the most ancient art forms. Some of the earliest
mummies found in Asia and Europe have them, and they can be found in
almost every culture.

Body art didn't catch on in the United States until the early 19th
century, and evolved from a counterculture activity in the 1960s into
a trendy fashion statement in the 1990s. Advances in inks and needles
and new regulations for tattoo artists also helped the industry.

Gary Clark, who has been in the business for 17 years, remembers back
in the 1980s when about the only people who had tattoos were bikers or
older military men.

"The first time I saw one, I thought, 'Man, I'd never get one of
those,'" he said. "Then I saw good tattoo, one that you could tell
right away what it was."

shop around first

Clark, who runs Honky Tonk Tattoo & Body Piercing in back of Top Notch
Cycles at 1919 Princess Anne St., said people who are thinking of
getting a tattoo should shop around, look at various tattoo artists'
portfolios and check out their Web sites.

"They should be able to prove that the work is theirs and not a co-
worker's," he said. "Then decide which one you like best." /copy and
paste from http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/F...3252007/268928

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Curt