Taboo tattoos: putting ink where the sun does shine

It has taken Gabe Ripley 10 years to deal with the stares.

Ripley, 31, decided to get a tattoo of a bird he described as a “blue-throated mirror” on the right side of his neck in the mid-1990s. Then, he decided to get a bluebird on the left side. Ripley followed that with a tattoo of a cherub on his right hand and one of a crow in the web of his left hand.

These were conscious decisions, he said, to get tattoos that he could not readily cover up.

“For me, it came down to a question of body ownership,” Ripley said. “When I got these tattoos, I said to myself, ‘I can do whatever I want. No one is going to refuse to hire me to be their computer programmer just because I have a tattoo on my hand.’”

Ripley’s body art is part of a national trend toward always-visible tattoos, ones that cannot be covered by traditional clothing. As tattoo artwork becomes more refined, more people are deciding to get tattoos in places that used to be generally taboo: on the hands, neck and face.

Ripley, who owns the tattoo shop Off the Map Tattoo in East Hampton, Mass., and has a Web site, tattoonow.com, was ahead of the trend by getting his first neck tattoo in the 1990s.

He says 20 to 30 percent of the tattoos he sees now are on the hands, neck and face--and perhaps as significant to him, the stigma of tattoos seems to have declined significantly in recent years.

“I’d say that television shows like 'Miami Ink' on TLC have brought even more people into the tattoo community than ever before,” said Adam Lauricella, a tattoo artist at Graceland Tattoo in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. “They find it’s safer than what they thought, and people know more than ever before. Now there are kids getting very heavily tattooed as young adults, even by age 21.”

Hearts and roses used to be popular, Lauricella said, but many of his customers now request Japanese dragons and flowers on their necks. Chinese symbols are in demand as well. At the same time, traditional American patriotic artwork

the Statue of Liberty and American flags -- remains popular.

Michelle Myles, a tattoo artist who splits her time between Fun City Tattoo and Daredevil Tattoo in New York City’s East Village, even did a tattoo on the Adam’s apple of Pat Notaro, 35, who directs video and photography shoots in Los Angeles.

“He wanted a tattoo done in the Day of the Dead style,” she said. “The tattoo I gave him had a bird clutching two bombs, one saying ‘love’ and the other saying ‘hate,’ and it had wings coming up his throat. Pat already had tattoos on his neck, so I guess he was ready for it.”

What also has changed is that more white-collar professionals are getting what are known as “radical tattoos.” The most radical kinds of tattoos, of course, are on the face.

“Pretty much every group but the clergy is doing it,” said Lauricella. “Doctors, lawyers, garbage men, criminals, police officers-—somebody in every group is choosing to do it. Some like the look, while others just like doing something they thought they’d never have the chance to do.”

Boxer Mike Tyson received the most publicized facial tattoo in recent memory three years ago, when he got a traditional Maori design on the left side of his face. Still, even as tattoos become more widely accepted, Myles said most facial tattoos are done on people who are already heavily tattooed. Being tattooed on the face apparently requires more of a leap of faith.

In past decades, tattoo artists used only basic colors, but every conceivable shade is now available. The use of stencils allows tattoo artists to draw with great precision. Today there is essentially no limit to what customers will request. Lauricella recently drew a tattoo of Ron Burgundy, Will Farrell’s character in the movie “Anchorman,” on a customer’s calf.

“At this point, everybody’s seen tattoos,” said Myles, who has a series of intertwined tattoos down each of her arms. “There are reality TV shows on tattoos coming into everybody’s living rooms all the time. It’s definitely lost its shock value. People are interested more than ever before, and even the more conservative people are inquiring.”

Of course, social acceptance with always-visible tattoos can still be an issue. “It just depends on what part of society you’re trying to be accepted into,” Lauricella said. “I like to be accepted or respected wherever I am. Being tattooed doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be.”

E-mail: jnm2010@columbia.edu