Thursday, Jul. 30, 2009
Tattoo 401K
Protecting Your Gracefully Aging Ink
Terri Pierce, Shannon Stair & Denise Martin - photo by Scott Smallin, Weekly Surge
Lindsey Rogers, soon to be a freshman music education major at Coastal Carolina University, stopped by the Hole in the Wall tattoo shop in Conway near CCU’s campus to make an appointment for her first tattoo – music notes and stars on her hips. She had thought about what the artwork would look like decades in the future.
“I thought about the whole pregnancy thing,” she said, “but that won’t happen for a long time.”
Pregnancy would likely stretch her tattoos, or maybe leave her with stretch marks running through them, but the 18-year-old wasn’t concerned. She was ready for her mother to come to the shop and give written permission for the tattooing to commence. In South Carolina, 18- to 21-year-olds must have a legal guardian sign a form indicating their consent.
If you’re younger than 18, no tattoos for you.
That’s probably a good thing, because what you want for a tattoo when you’re 14 is probably a lot different from what you would choose at age 24 or 34. But no matter at what age you start tattooing, consideration needs to be given to what the tattoo will look like as your body matures. And while age and gravity are inevitable, the inevitable can be delayed.
Think it through
Many tattoo-related problems can be avoided if careful thought and preparation is put into each tattoo. That means no drunken decisions to have 20 stars put all over your face.
Spider Kumo of Columbia gave himself a tattoo at age 14 and did a creditable job working upside down to put a unicorn and a long-ago girlfriend’s initials on his chest with a straight pin and a drafting pen. Now as a 42-year-old professional tattoo artist with a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, he thinks young people need to make informed decisions about what they are inking onto their bodies.
“Just remember you gotta live with it the rest of your life,” he said inside the cavernous Elite Ink tattoo shop on Seaboard Street in Myrtle Beach, where he is a guest artist. “Don’t pick your favorite band [as a tattoo] when you’re 19.”
Dana Pierce and Terri Ryan-Pierce, who own Hole in the Wall, say they assist potential clients by guiding their ideas into workable tattoos, or even helping them come up with more meaningful designs. It might be a man who wants an American flag, but with a little probing they discover the addition of a memorial to his grandfather would make it more significant. A woman might want to add a tiny fairy to her flower tattoo, but after discussion understands that a hummingbird would look better.
“Some people want a tattoo so bad, but they haven’t come to the decision about what they want,” Terri Pierce said. “They discover what they want after talking about it with us. We welcome varying ideas, but we need to make sure they are the best ideas for your skin.”
The trio says they are seeing an older crowd coming into their attractive and sanitary state-of-the-art shop, and these Baby Boomers have aging to factor into their decisions.
“We had a 70-year-old coming in for his Marine Corps tattoos,” Dana Pierce said, “and his skin is OK so we’re doing it. A 69-year-old came in for the first tattoo, but the skin was too thin on the lower extremities, the lower legs and lower arms … We turn a lot of people down to protect them from themselves, but we sleep good at night.”
“The lower legs go first as far as us being able to tattoo them,” Dana Pierce said; he has a dental degree and used to own a dental lab. “The skin gets thinner. We’ve had to disappoint a lot of people. When the person is 60 [or older] we evaluate on a case-by-case basis because the skin gets thin and then you can blow out lines.”
The Pierces’ business associate, a 30-year veteran tattoo artist who goes only by the name Sharky, says he has even refused to tattoo 40-year-olds on the arm because their skin was too thin.
Buyers’ remorse
Buyers' Remorse
Hole in the Wall is not in a location that gets much impulse traffic, but the occasional drunk customer comes in looking for a tattoo. Those people are also turned away, because the Pierces realize when they sober up they might rue the ink.
Even clear-headed people might regret their tattoos, either right away or years later. Half of the clients at Hole in the Wall are there to get rid of tattoos.
“Half our business is cover-ups,” Terri Pierce said. “They’ll say, ‘I really wish I didn’t do this 20 years ago.’”
People who regret tattoos can either have them covered with another tattoo or removed with a laser.
If they choose the tattoo solution, the first thing to consider is whether the tattoo is coverable. If it is, then they need to think about what they love in life enough to have it permanently inscribed on the unique canvas that is their body, because a cover-up tattoo has to be bigger and darker than the original. A great tattoo artist can make varicose veins, stretch marks and scars part of the picture.
Sometimes people just want it gone and Tonya Smith, a licensed aesthetician at DermaVogue in Myrtle Beach, sees a lot of those cases. There’s the high schooler with tattoos on his hands he regrets, the girls who wish they didn’t get “tramp stamps” on their lower backs, and men with arm tattoos whose employers prohibit them being uncovered while on the job.
“We even have tattoo artists who come in for removals,” Smith said, “and attorneys … it’s a variety.”
Smith sees a lot of women who want tattoos removed from their arms or abdomens.
“Those areas get larger when they have babies,” she said, “and [the tattoos] are not going to go back in the same way if you gain and lose weight. You might have stretch marks and over time the pigments can change colors. This laser works pretty good on all colors, but it’s the blacks and greens – darker colors – that it works best on.”
Smith uses a Q-Switched YAG laser, which was introduced in 1991 for use in tattoo removal. In years past, caustic chemicals were used. The Q-Switched uses a long wavelength (1064 nanometers) that is absorbed by the pigments, and then they decompose.
“It disperses the pigment,” Smith said. “The body absorbs it and it gets flushed out of the system.”
But not in one shot. Depending on the tattoo, the average person is looking at eight to 10 treatments and a total cost of $40 per square inch. So it costs more to remove a tattoo than to get one, and the process of removing it hurts a little, sort a like a “hot rubber band pop.” The process takes about six weeks.
Terri Pierce said she is going to try another new tattoo removal product on herself called WreckingBalm®. It involves a hand-held electric abrasion device (think rotary sander) and chemicals.
“I’m gonna try it,” she said, “but I’m scared.”
Skin so soft and saggy
For those who stay happy with their decisions to get tattoos and continue to enjoy them, there are ways to keep the art fresh and youthful. Sun is the No. 1 enemy, and while it is possible to have both a tan and tattoos, the ink will last longer if sunscreen is used daily. Avoiding the sun is especially critical when the tattoo is fresh.
Terri Pierce has tattoos on her arms and legs that look pristine. Sharky has a woman on his arm that looks as alluring as she did when created in 1977. Spider Kumo’s 28-year-old unicorn is still crisp, and a 22-year-old Japanese mythological woman on his arm remains vividly startling.
However, Kumo’s arm tattoo has moved around over the years. When he got it, he weighed 140 pounds and the woman was centered on his arm. When he started weight training, the resulting muscle mass and bulk as he went up to 250 pounds made the tattoo move to the side of his arm.
“It’s the same with any weight gain,” Kumo said. “One woman had a small rose on her belly that got five times bigger when she was pregnant, and then it went back to its original size without any stretch marks in it. But if you get stretch marks, that’s a whole ‘nother ball game. Sometimes you can cover them up, they’re fixable. It depends how bad it got stretched out and the design.”
Terri Pierce is 45, and she says the key to warding off badly-aged tattoos is to take care of yourself. She avoids excessive sun exposure, eats healthy foods, works out and drinks at least eight bottles of water every day.
“I take really good care of myself and figure I have a good 15 years left [before aging really sets in]. I drink lots of water, because even if you’re not tattooed you need to take care of your skin. It’s our biggest organ.”
If the tattoos do fade or the lines get wider or blur, skilled tattoo artists can inject new life into them with fresh pigments. If you haven’t had a tattoo in a while, know that the process isn’t as painful as it used to be, the pigments are higher quality and the recovery is usually easier. If you are working with a skilled professional tattoo artist, all conditions are normal and you follow suggestions for aftercare, you shouldn’t even get a scab.
Embracing the memories
Some mothers have rings, necklaces or bracelets with jewels or charms representing their children. Denise Martin of Socastee has a mother’s tattoo. It’s a big heart in the small of her back containing curlicues and flowers, hers and her husband’s names and four of her five children’s initials. She hasn’t yet had time to go back and get her latest baby’s name added.
“It’s just something different,” said the 41-year-old. “I’m never traditional, and I figured that would be a cool way to commemorate my husband and babies. To me it’s just art that you put on your body instead of on the wall. Years ago I probably thought it represented a certain lifestyle – dangerous, bikers – but now I know so many people who have them, and they all have them for different reasons.”
Martin’s tattoo has faded and blurred a little with time and pregnancies, and since she is African-American, certain colors of inks don’t show up well on her skin, such as reds and greens.
“All tattoos fade, but it’s more noticeable on black skin,” she said. “I have to have it touched up every couple of years. I’m kinda worried about what it is going to look like when I get older. Some I see on the Internet still look good, and then there are others I think, ‘Ooooooh, they shoulda thought about that.’”
Shannon Stair is 12 years younger than Martin, but her first tattoo is now 15 years old. It’s also a mother’s tattoo: a gargoyle on a ball that commemorates when at age 15 she gave her son up for adoption.
“The art was mine, and my friend drew it using an RCA car motor, a remote control, guitar string, cigarette ash and toothpaste,” Stair said. “His dad was a tattoo artist. He had transfer paper and I drew it on there, and he sprayed my arm and went to town.”
That tattoo is faded now – Stair is deeply tanned – but that hasn’t stopped her from getting more body art. Every image is her design, and each one represents a major life milestone. Faded or not, she considers them part of who she is and likes meeting other people with tattoos and talking about the images. Often the most faded tattoos have the best stories behind them, she says.
In fact, Stair wants to bequeath her tattoos to her descendants.
“When I get old and die I want to take them off, stretch them and tan them so the family can have them,” she said. “I don’t know if anybody can do that. When you get old things sag and get wrinkly, and who cares at that point what your tattoos look like? If you take care of yourself they might not look bad. It’s really all in the person. But ultimately I’d like to be skinned, tanned and stretched, and just pass it down. It might be neat 200 years from now for somebody in my family to have my tattoos.
“The tattoos are me. They don’t make me any different. I eat the same way, sleep the same way, cut me and I bleed. I’m the same as everybody else – I’m just more colorful.”
Terri Pierce agrees with that sentiment.
“My mom was horrified [over my tattoos] and worried about how I would look when I was older. But if I’m sitting in a nursing home, sagging, just me and Bertha, and she has no tattoos – I’m decorated and she’s not. If you’re comfortable in your skin, that’s how you proudly wear a tattoo at any age.”
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