Tattos were viewed as something

“When I began my journey, tattoos were viewed as something meant for rebels and outcasts,” says Dr Woo (real name Brian Woo), a well-known LA-based tattoo artist who has 1.8 million Instagram followers as well as a prestigious clientele which include Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and Drake. “I am from a traditional and traditional Asian family, and my parents were not thrilled when their son decided to pursue this profession. However, 41-year-old Woo who’s prices start in the range of $2,500 (PS2,066) He insists that the body ink doesn’t carry the same negative meanings. “I see lawyers medical professionals, politician, children who are celebrating the 18th anniversary of their birthdays as well as grandparents… it’s everyone from all different kinds of people who come to my space,” he explains. “There was an era not too long ago when I was the sole person present with tattoos, however, in 2022, you’re viewed in a funny way if you don’t wear one. My parents are now okay with the job.

Woo’s remarks reflect the growing tattoos’ widespread popularity. In 2015, a YouGov survey indicated that that one-fifth of British adult population had tattoos, and the most recent data from Ipsos reveal that 30 percent of Americans are carrying at-least one tattoo tattoo on their body (a figure that reaches 40% for those under 35). What was once thought of as a subculture connected to nomads and biker gangs, rather than the middle class has become an ever-present force in the mainstream and an annual $3 billion industry.

It’s almost an rite of passage for some of the biggest pop celebrities (Post Malone and Billie Eilish) and athletes (LeBron James, Lionel Messi) to be tattooed across their faces and bodies and inspiring their fans to follow suit. Fashion houses often employ famous tattooed celebrities to give the edge to their brand (the famously tattooed comic Pete Davidson is the current world-wide model for H&M); Virgin Atlantic allows employees to proudly display their tats when flying long distances; and there is a reason why the US Army has eased the rules that have been in place for a long time prohibiting tattoos visible to troops and cited “changing social practices” as the motive.

Ancient roots

Lodder refers to Otzi who was a European Tyrolean Iceman whose frozen body was preserved under an Alpine glacier near the border between Italy and Austria until it was finally discovered by a confused German couple 5300 years later, during their walk vacation during their time in the Alps. Otzi had 61 tattoos on his body, and the tattoos (which were mostly sets of vertical and horizontal lines) believed to have served some therapeutic value akin to acupuncture as they were often grouped around the lower back of Otzi’s joints, that anthropologists claim that the Iceman had suffered painful and degenerative conditions.

Some of the ancient corpses have shown elaborate designs. For instance, the “Gebelein Man” is displayed in the British Museum for more than 100 years, features tattoos of interlocking bull and sheep across the arm of his. The mummified body is from Ancient Egyptian’s Predynastic period, which was around 5500 years ago, and tattoos being permanently applied under the skin with carbon-based compounds Experts believe that it was something like sootor soot]. There’s evidence that ladies of Ancient Egypt were tattooed which experts believe tattoos were made into skin to ensure that the gods could protect their infants during the pregnancy. The discovery in 1891 of Amunet the priestess of the goddess Hathor in Thebes revealed extensive tattoos on the mummified corpse’s abdomen..

The enticement of fame

In the author Margot Mifflin’s fascinating novel Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo she explains why fashionable women during the 19th century in Europe and the United States would get tattoos on their upper and lower arms as well as their feet and upper arms; areas that were easily hidden through clothing. The first female professional tattooists in the US was Maud Wagner, who learned from her husband and began her work in 1907. Jessie Knight, who started professionally in 1921, may have been Wagner’s counterpart in the UK.

For Mifflin tattoos have always represented anti-culture beliefs for women. “Tattooing allowed women to have whatever they wanted using their own physiques,” she explains. “It was different for women than males, since tattooed women were directly affecting nature in a way that history had previously prohibited. It was an opportunity to alter the way they viewed the body.”

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Mifflin states that her research shows that “dark shade” from World War Two – where Jewish prisoners of war were tattooed, numbered and tattooed by their Nazi captors during the genocidal massacre of the Holocaust was the cause of an ebb in the desire of people to get tattoos on their bodies. However, by the 1960s the tide was turning again which she attributes partly with the impact of the late rock the roll icon Janis Joplin. “Janis was wearing this bracelet with a Florentine design that was tattooed onto her wrist that was clearly visible as well as an emoji above her breasts,” explains Mifflin.

Fighting against art world snobbery

Despite this long and rich history and the uniqueness of tattoos as mobile artworks that travel through all of their lives, Cartoon says he still has to deal with prejudice. “If you attend art school and tell them you’d like to be a tattooist , they’ll still see it as a deceitful way to earn money,” he says. Tattooists create art using moving flesh, and that takes an incredible amount of expertise, in addition to being therapists and marriage counsellors for those who sit in the chairs. If you see someone else do tattoos, then you leave thinking that it’s not art then you’re an artist.”

Although snobbery is still a thing, Mifflin insists the art and tattoo worlds are merging increasingly. She cites Mexican tattooist Dr Lakra (who has created an edgy, religiously-driven visual style) as well as Belgium’s Wim Delvoye (who has been criticized for tattooing animals) as two figureheads who have been instrumental in bridging the gap between fine art and tattoos. Lodder is, however, saying that Japanese tattooist Gakkin has brought his own “avant-garde” approach to the art form.

In the present, tattooists are selling their original art by the amount of time it takes to tattoo the skin of someone else,” Campbell tells BBC Culture. “It implies that we’re selling hours of our lives than electricians or plumbers. artists. We’re viewed as tradesmen who just carve some thing on an arm.”

Campbell asserts that Campbell claims that if Vincent van Gogh was a tattoo artist, nobody would have heard about his work “because every one of his canvases would have perished. Worms would have eaten his artwork”. In the case of Scab Shop, he insists that the work of tattoo artists will finally be able to last beyond just a photocopy and, consequently will help in eradicating some of the negative stigmas Mister Cartoon alludes to.

The gender gap

With the tattoo industry set for growth to continue in the next three years Mifflin states that making it not dominated by males should be considered a top concern. A survey from 2017 conducted by Statista found that the likelihood of women is higher get tattoos than males. Yet just 25 percent of US tattoo artists are women and are significantly overshadowed in comparison to their (75 75 percent) male peers. “If you open the pages of a tattoo magazine, they’re packed with naked female pin-ups” Mifflin explains. Mifflin. “The tattoo culture is still very gender-biased towards males.”

One person who has experience of this gender disparity can be Sasha M. an accomplished female tattooist who earned the name for herself in Russia despite having been born in Ukraine. She currently lives at Los Angeles, she has five tattoo shops across the world. “When I began tattooing, clients would come to me in person, and they would be surprised that because I was a woman,” she tells the BBC. “It was as if I had to be a bit more than a man to prove to them that I was just as talented as men.”

But the fact that Masiuk is now charging up to $25,000 (PS16,534) to perform her art is a sign that the times are changing. She cites the changing views in Russia as evidence the tattoo-related culture hasn’t only popular across the globe, it’s also thriving in also in the East as well. “When people noticed that you had tattoos, they viewed you as a risk or a drug addicted,” she reflects of her early days in Russia. “But nowadays, in cities such as St Petersburg and Moscow, tattoos are considered something that is part of the culture.”