Body art
by Carlos Raigosa, editor-in-chief

     Second in a series of three.
     It’s sometime between 2 and 3 a.m. in a downtown studio in Lower Greenville in Dallas, and Jacob Warren, TCC student, is getting his first tattoo—a tribal (a type of design) on his back.
     He’s getting a tattoo is only because his four companions have just got “inked up” and they are paying for his, he says.
     Thoughts of how the artist seems to be on some kind of “upper” keep crossing Warren’s mind, but he clutches his girlfriend Randi’s hand as Ice starts on him.
     “I made sure this place was clean before I finally gave in,” he says. “Once he begins, I know there is no turning back.”
     Black Sabbath is playing loudly over the radio and other people wander into the parlor, which could take in about four or five customers at a time.
     “The needle just seemed to be moving really fast; I didn’t know if he was ‘coked up’ or if he was just really excited to be doing what he was doing,” he said. “I just gave him the benefit of the doubt.”
     A week later Warren has come to the conclusion that he has made a mistake. He still wants a tattoo, but the one he has seems to be “slightly crooked,” according to Warren.
“I like the design, but since it is between my shoulders on my back, it is noticeable,” he says. “I plan on getting more work done to it in the future.”
     The future is something he will be paying for because he plans on going to one of the premiere tattoo studios in the Metroplex, Randy Adams Tattoo on East Lancaster.
     The fact that the Randy Adams’ listing in the yellow pages advertises its use of “sterile single-use instruments” seems to give the impression that all the risks are taken out of tattooing.
     Unlike body piercing, which in recent years has attracted the attention of mainstream medical organizations that have issued sober warnings about the health implications of puncture wounds, most of the concerns surrounding tattooing involve an injury more of the mind than the body: regret.
     Others get body art to form a bond with a larger community, such as the armed forces. Randall K. Duncan, a former Navy Airman and TCC student, tells about getting his tattoo in Italy close to five years ago—a place that he says did not meet his standards.
     “We went in one night and wanted to get something that we could remember ourselves by,” Duncan says. “A tattoo made sense.”
     Duncan’s tribal on his left arm is now fading and needs a few “touch-ups,” but he stresses that he is proud of his choice and thinks of his fellow soldiers when he looks at his arm.
     “The place that we went to was not what you would call ‘top notch,’ but I made sure the needles were brand new and the artist was wearing gloves,” he said.
     Girls are attracted by the “cute” designs and the ability to have them covered by either socks or underwear, Betty Dignum, TCC student, said.
     On her right ankle, Dignum, 20, has a tattoo of a baby devil with a diaper and says that she was able to get hers done when she was 17 because some tattoo parlors are less strict on age restrictions.
     “I’ve noticed that tattoo shops in Fort Worth don’t enforce I.D. checks, but they are not as good as the shops in Dallas,” she said.
     Originally she had a butterfly in mind, but she said that the little devil caught her eye.
     “I went in with one of my friends who had a tattoo on her right ankle,” she said. “I wasn’t pressured into it, but I’m sure I will regret it when I get older.”
     Tattoo artists use an electrically powered, vertically vibrating instrument resembling a dentist’s drill and fitted with solid needles that inject pigments into the skin at the rate of 50 to 3,000 times a minute.
     “I have a lot of people coming in to get a tattoo while under the influence or not all there,” Scott from the Tattoo Studio on North Main Street in Fort Worth said. “Many are unaware that we are using new needles each time, and they must make sure that when they go to lesser quality studios, they don’t get stuck with a used needle.”
     When things go “bad,” however, the risks are similar to those of piercing, including localized bacterial infections and blood-borne infectious diseases, Dr. Jerome Tulecke, a Fort Worth physician who specializes on tattoo removal, said.
     The American Academy of Dermatology says non-sterile tattooing practices have led to the transmission of syphilis, hepatitis B and other infectious organisms. The potential for transmission of blood-borne pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis C also exist. But the latter has drastically dropped because of the use of single-use equipment, according to Dr. Tulecke.
     The key is to find a good shop and a skilled artist, Katrina Hegge, spokeswoman for the Alliance of Professional Tattooists, a nonprofit professional society based in Annapolis, Md., said.
     Most artists have pictures of their work to compare; it is advised that those be looked over prior to choosing an artist. Also, most have a specialty such as Japanese work while others do more cartoonish-style drawings, so one should take that into account, Hegge suggests.
     Price usually is proportionate to the quality. One should expect anywhere between $50 to $200 an hour for custom work. Piece pricing, work that is already “pre drawn,” tends to be cheaper.
     It all boils down to some simple advice given by Warren: what passes for art now may not pass for art when you’re 40.
     “This is a lifetime commitment,” he says. “If you’re thinking, ‘Oh, I can have this removed later,’ don’t get one.”