Sunday, March 07, 2004

Tattoo You

Went down to Philadelphia tonight to meet up with the Baron. After latte and conversation at Starbucks, but before we headed to get dinner, we made a tour of tattoo parlors on and off South Street.

Uh uh.

Saw nothing I liked. I'm trying to think of what the person would be like who would get a tattoo of Rosie, the Jetson's robot maid. I mean, those goofy Hotstuff the Little Devil I guess I can sort of understand. But Rosie, the Jetson's robot maid? There were also numerous selections of Chinese characters. Some of them--strength, courage, satori--I could see. But how about the Chinese character for 'nose.'

But mostly I was disappointed by the artists who were loitering about in the parlors I visited. I mean, they looked like their approach to what they were doing was, "this is a better gig than working at Kinko's."

P'raps I'm romanticizing things a bit much (Who? Me???!!), but I want to bond with the person that inks me. That's how it was when I got my first one fifteen years ago.

The Baron opines that when I got that tattoo all those years ago, getting a tattoo was still something that not a lot of people were doing. He said that a lot of the tattoo artists who were respected and who viewed what they were doing as something more than a job have gotten out of Center City, just because they were beseiged every weekend with witless hordes wanting Hotstuff the Little Red Devil tattooed on their calves.

So I don't think I'm going to find what I want in a sketchbook. I'll have to come up with my own design.

What to get, what to get. Boots appeal to me. As does chain. A whip. Another wolf. Hmmm. I'd really like to have extensive work done on one arm. What's known as a 'sleeve.' But I think that I would never be able to settle on something firgurative. So what about something abstract? Hmmm. Maybe I should look through some of the works of the Abstract Expressionists that I love so well.

If anybody has any ideas, do pass them on.

Thanks.


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