University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, March 19, 1991
9
Skin art expresses individuality
In popular literature, a character with a tattoo is usually dangerous, rebellious and maybe has a mean streak.
"When I first got it I would look at it a lot," she said. "But just yesterday I went to take a shower and I saw it and went 'Whoa.'"
Winter said she sometimes forgot that she had the tattoo.
By Jonathan Plummer Kansan staff writer
But the tattoo is no longer the sole domain of the tough, biker-in-leather type. Some KU students said their tattoos were artistic statements, another way of presenting themselves to the world.
"I am a cat lover, and this is my personal expression of how I feel," she said. "To do it as a sign of rebellion is not at all."
For seven months, Leigh Winter, Chesterfield senior, has had a daut虏 of a black cat on her calf, created from a design she drew herself. Her tattoo is not a sign of rebellion, but a sign of who she is, she said.
Winter said she would be getting another tattoo this week, this time one with her own design of two Siamese cats.
Jamie Mavec, Olathe senior, also said she was thinking about getting another tattoo.
"It's addictive," she said. "Once you get one, you want to get another one."
"They say, it's kind of like eating potato chips," she said. "Once you have one, you want another one."
On her shoulder, Mavec has a tattoo of a Chinese dragon she
designed from a picture she had seen and admired. She said she was thinking about getting another tattoo on her arm, but wanted to make the designs matched.
"I'm looking for something Oriental," she said. "I want everything to be unified."
Mavec said a popular idea about tattoos, that the decision to get one comes in haste, was not true in her case, as she thought about it for a
Laura Moriarty, Lawrence junior,
said her decision to get a tattoo was
made in less time.
"I just knew I wanted one, and I thought about it for a week," she said. "But I like it, and I have never negretted it."
Mortariy said her parents threatened to cancel a trip she planned to Yugoslavia last year unless she got the tattoo removed.
Moriarty said few people told her that they did not like her tattoo.
"They whipped up a plastic surgeon and told me I couldn't go unless I got it removed," she said. "But I could see." She then wore my tattoo. They got over it.
On her calf, Moriarty has a tattoo of a peace dove similar to one drawn by painter Pablo Picasso. Moriarty said the artist who drew her tattoo was not impressed by his fellow artist's work.
"The guy said, 'What is that?' and I said, "It's a dove by Picasso" and he said, "Who is that?" she said. "He said, 'Let me show you a real dove' and he showed me these pictures of big doves with rats in their mouths."
Jamie Mavec, Olathe senior, shows off her tattoo of a Chinese dragon that she designed herself.
"I used to volunteer at a nursing home, and all the old people there loved it," she said. "And now I work with them. And you can be my keeper me about it." At its own level, "it's ours."
Although some pain was involved in getting the tattoo, Moriarty said it was less than she thought it would be.
"The guy who put it on said that he sometimes gets men cry or you pass out," she said. "But he said women usually don't flinch."
Eric Black, Overland Park sophomore, said he tried to put the pain in perspective.
"It hurt just a little," Black said. "But you have to go in there thinking it's a needle, so there's some pain involved."
Black said that the picture he wanted, a scarab beetle that appears on a Jimi Hendrix album cover, was made up of a bad art world music it up.
"I looked around to a lot of places, and 'a' lot of them were pretty creepy," he said. "But at the place I had been before, I was further forward and said he could it."
Many people were interested in the design, even if they did not know what a scarab beetle was. Black said.
"I try to show it off," he said.
"Most people want to look at it, but I usually have to tell them that it's a scarab. The reason I like mine is because people see it and say, 'Totally bogus tattoo.'"
Keith Thorpe/KANSAN
Eric Black displays his scarab beetle tattoo.
Tattoo choice may stay under skin for lifetime
By Jonathan Plummer
Kansan staff writer
If you are thinking of making a statement with a tattoo, make sure it is a statement you can live with for a lifetime. a dermatologist recommends.
Lee Bittenden, a Lawrence physician, said he saw patients about once every two months who wished to have
"For people thinking about this, I would say give this some very serious thought because it is much easier to understand."
Sometimes small tattoos in places where the skin is not taut can be removed by removing the skin and stitching it.
But usually removal is done through a process called dermabrasion, where the skin is sanded with a tool equipped with a diamond frize, which spins at 20,000-30,000 revolutions a minute.
After the area of the tattoo is anesthetized, a one inch section is blocked out with gauze and sprayed with a solution that freezes the skin, making it hard and easier to sand.
The process, which takes about 45 minutes, sands out some of the pigment of the tattoo, and more comes out in the healing process, which takes four to six weeks.
"A tattoo should be considered something you will have for the rest of your life," he said. "Because if you have it removed, it will leave you with a permanent mark."
Ceddie Fischer of Fineline Tattoos in Topeka, agreed that the decision should come after a lot of thought.
Fischer said that those who decide to get a tattoo should be sure to check out how sanitary the artist was working. "I was not very happy," he said.
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