Why is it that this idea of altering your body become so popular? I wondered myself even though i am on of the many teenagers that morph their bodies to try and prove a point... but what is the point? I think that most people who have tattoos and piercings; at one point, thought it would make them different because the next person wouldn't have that same "exact" tattoo or they discovered some new part on their body to put a hole in that no one else would have. Speaking from personal experience i am one of the many that follow the trend, with my many percings, tattoos are soon to come!
Our culture seems to be completely divided in half between people who feel tattooing and piercing your body up is fine and acceptable and others that are strongly against it. As fanning mentioned in class today, tattoo specifically has become a lot more acceptable. When he started adding to his collection of tattoos it was very "taboo" only the convicts, sailors and punk rockers had them. Fanning seemed to be very straight up and honest as far as i could tell when he was put on the spot to answer out questions. He had meaning for some of his tattoos but a lot of them were on his arm because he wanted to fill the the blank spaces. His first tattoo when he was 17 years old was simply a way of rebelling from everyone else growing up in the small town in main where he grew up, growing up he seemed to have find a love for the talent and it took for there works of art to be created. Many of his tattoos are done in a traditional Japanese style different from how artists in the states tackle them. I found that to be very interesting, in many cases i feel that tattoos are a form of art work, he has some really beautiful work! I was suprised to hear that he did not regret getting any of them, i could tell in his case it was more of a practice he did for himself rather than to be "cool" because most of the time the are hidden.
My fascination for tattoos started when i was pretty young. My dad had been a college professor, when my dad was teaching his summer film course in London my mother and I would always move with him. I remember my first ever babysitter was one of his students, her name was Hansey, she was covered in tattoos from neck to toe. when your a young kid (6) surrounded by college students and your the professor's daughter people make a big deal about you, you feel special and everybody seems "cool". I felt like she was the "coolest" person i had even seen, at that age i had not seen very many people quite like her. I clearly remember hanging out in her dorm and along with every tattoo on her body came with its own story. We would talk for hours about what all of them meant to her. From then one i always wanted to be just like her and i knew that i wanted tattoos as well.
I have always watched probably too much TV but about 3 years ago i got hooked on a reality show called Miami Ink that i came across one day on TLC. A camera crew basically filmed inside of their shop and told followed the artists life stories, one of the artists (the only women in the shop) named Kat Von D automatically caught my attention. I think she is the only true beauty that can pull of the amazing amount of work she has on her body including her face, which is covered in stars). She was the bad-ass that just that that something about her, she became an almost role model to me. After she left the show she quickly her own spin off called LA Ink, i made sure to watch it religiously, when i was in LA i made it a priority to visit her tattoo shop and when her book came out i skipped half a day to meet her at the barns and noble near my house when she was having a book signing. I was so happily surprised to see that she was so down to earth and a complete sweet heart which made me even more obsessed. It seems to just take one person to make some look good for everyone else to follow along, she has a huge fan base and is now one of the top leading tattoo artist in the world. To me the appeal is that she plays a very strong female role, she has overcome many obstacles which makes her much more relatable. She exudes confidence which also adds to the appeal.
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