thePULSETattoo You
August 2004 – “Oh my God,” Ceecee Polanco says with a gasp. Standing beside her, Marc Williams, owner of Worcester’s Piercing Emporium & Tattoo, slips a small, white gem stud into her tragus, a portion of the outer ear, the piercing of which has caused the 19-year old to break the third commandment.
Ceecee’s friends are there for moral support. They wince in sympathy and then begin to chatter and fuss over her as she shimmies off the hip-length doctor’s table to inspect her new piercing – this is her twelfth – in a nearby mirror.
“Everyone’s looking for the next up on everyone else,” says Piercing Emporium’s Williams of the latest trends in body jewelry. “The more that dangles and shows off, the better. Gems are the next big thing.”
The once extreme realm of body art – piercings, tattoos, brandings and cuttings – is becoming more and more mainstream. With new shops cropping up daily, consumer awareness and product knowledge are key. Unlike the days of old, piercings and tattoos are not a brash decision to be made on a drunken night with friends.
For tattoo trends, on the outs are tribal designs, homemade tattoos contrived with ink kits and standard “cookie-cutter,” pre-made “flash” pictures that used to frequent the walls of local tattoo parlors by the hundreds.
In are creativity and individuality. “People aren’t really coming in and looking at the wall and saying ‘I want this,’ ” says Rosemarie Pulda, owner of Miraculous Creations, Inc. Today, individuals are making wiser, more thoughtful decisions, choosing designs that speak to them personally. “People are thinking more, they’re being more careful about their choices,” says Pulda. “And the increased open-minded feeling about body art is giving people the OK to be creative.”
The ingrained gender stereotype is also changing as well. In the past, says Pulda, tattooing was mostly left up to the men. And those women who were bold enough to go under the ink chose an inconspicuous place, such as the hip or ankle, where a tattoo could be hidden quite easily. Now, however, more and more younger women are getting tattoos – and in places where they are visible, like on the lower back, chest, or along the arms.
Pulda herself is a maze of tattoos, with “sleeves” of art along her arms, ankles and murals on her hips and back. “I feel like, for me, getting my tattoos where they’re visible is very much a statement,” she says. “I can make my choices, I can vote, I can get tattoos.”
Also growing in popularity are branding and cutting. Branding is a type of burning – much like the act performed on cattle with a heated metal poker – that spreads as it heals, creating a wide, thick scar. “Strike” branding utilizes an emblem or design, heated and pressed onto the body with one strike. “Multi-strike” branding repeats the “strike” pattern several times and “draw” branding involves a steel pencil that is used to draw the brand onto the skin, allowing for more freedom of design. Cutting, which involves slicing the skin with a scalpel, creates a detailed, fine, thin scar. Pulda recommends both for individuals who enjoy body art, but are looking for a more discreet, color-less alternative to the trendiness of piercing and the flashiness of tattoos. “They’re not as popular as tattoos or piercing,” she says, “but they’re creeping up slowly.”
For piercing, the prime places are tongues, nostrils, belly-buttons, nipples and genitals. The latest fashions for body jewelry include wood plugs, carved water buffalo horn, and Dicro glass, which has a color-changing foil wrapped inside.
Tongue-splitting and earlobe-stretching are also enjoying increased popularity. “Your ear will stretch to crazy lengths as long as you take your time and do it right,” says Williams, who comments that the ‘right’ way is to take it one gage at a time. “You have to allow your body to move, not force it to move.”
When considering a tattoo or a piercing, both Williams and Pulda agree that research is essential, whether it be through the web at sites such as www.safepiercing.org or simply visiting a shop and building up a rapport with the piercer or tattoo artist. And when the big day finally comes, eat a decent meal, bring a valid ID, dress comfortably and, most importantly, relax.
And don’t rush into anything. It’s perfectly fine to contemplate, or even agonize over the perfect piercing or tattoo for your body. “People think more about buying a car that will last them for 5 or 10 years than they do a tattoo,” says Pulda. “And that’s why they end up regretting them. It’s one of the only purchases that someone will make in their entire lifetime that will last a lifetime.”
