Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 17, 1993 TAG: 9308170125
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"Remember me?" she asked in hushed tones. "You gave me my tattoo."
Heggarty, a tattoo artist with Ancient Art Tattoo Studio in Roanoke, remembered, just like co-worker Eddie Yeary remembers three more nurses who came in to get their ankles done.
In recent years, health-care workers, college students, teachers and business executives have increased in numbers in tattoo studios, where the clientele has been stereotyped as leather-wearing bikers and rock stars. In Roanoke, Ancient Art owner Dani Fowler says, people were about three years late catching on.
Mike "Griz" Golden, who opened Skin Thrills on Williamson Road in 1986, recently tattooed a lawyer from Grundy. "A prominent lawyer," he said. "I used to tattoo mostly working people - everyday working people. That's changed in the last two or three years."
The number of women getting tattoos appears to have increased, too, but Fowler says women have always been frequent customers.
Difference is, now they're showing the artwork.
"Now they flaunt them," Fowler said. "Ever since Cher showed her a--.
"MTV is what I think really got it going."
The age of most people getting inked ranges from 18 to 25, Fowler said. But on a recent afternoon, a 16-year-old girl walked into Ancient Art with her mother, looking for an Aztec sun for her arm.
Her sister waited outside in a minivan, parked outside the studio on U.S. 220.
"The baby boomer generation, the hippies that have gone into the computer world - their kids are the ones we're doing now," Fowler said.
Business at both studios has increased over the past two years. And tattoo designs have become more complicated, too.
People lean less toward "cloak and dagger" tattoos and pick out designs that define the person.
"Every tattoo means something to the person getting it - or should," said Fowler. He urges people to shop around to find the right studio and the right tattoo. If he thinks it's something the client won't be proud of later on, he won't do it.
Recently, he talked an 18-year-old woman out of getting Bullwinkle etched in her ankle. But he usually doesn't give more than one warning, he said. "There's a fine line between saving somebody and putting yourself out of business."
He didn't try to talk Nita Nelson, a merchandiser for Advance Auto, out of getting a unicorn on her ankle.
She's always had a fascination with unicorns, she said. And she's always had a fascination with tattoos.
"This isn't as bad as plucking my eyebrows," she said, as Fowler put a curl on the unicorn's tail.
Tattoo artists say getting a tattoo like using an Epilady electric hair remover.
Andy Lawrence, a student at West Virginia University, describes it differently. "It's like getting slapped and stung at the same time," he said.
Lawrence picked his tattoo from a textbook he used for art class. He's a waiter at a resort where they may not have an appreciation for body art, he said. This summer, he's wearing sleeves.
Clients' mothers don't always have an appreciation for tattoos, either.
"You know how moms are," said Elisha Corbin, a waitress at Shakers, who has an enhanced Exxon tiger on her shoulder. "She's getting used to it, though."
With all of the attention tattoos are getting now, "it's becoming more accepted to have them," Golden said. "I think more people are getting them."
Laura Renn, a graduate student in building and construction at Virginia Tech, got the tattoo she always wanted last spring. It's a raven, black, on her back.
"My mom said, `You're just trying to be dangerous,' " Renn said. "But that's not the case. I'm not dangerous."
Renn's sister, a Realtor, got a tattoo eight years ago.
Matt Johnson, a mechanical contractor in Radford, got an American Indian symbol on his ankle. He had wanted a tattoo since he was in high school, in what he calls his "biker phase."
He outgrew the phase, but he didn't outgrow the desire for a tattoo.
"The day before I went and got it, my mother walked in with a bottle of aloe and sort of dared me to do it. She said, `If you get one of those things you're going to need this.' "
Ruthie Holland, who graduated from Hollins College in 1991, was one of about 25 women that year who tattooed a green "H" on the ball of her foot.
"It was just like: `Oh, I'm gonna miss you guys so much,' so we just went out and did something together," said Holland, who now helps run Ward's Rock Cafe in Roanoke.
All who got the tattoos were, to the best of Holland's knowledge, sober. They chose the foot, even though it is one of the more sensitive areas to be tattooed, because it wears off after a while, she said.
One warning about tattoos - they can be addictive.
Nelson, with her unicorn freshly bandaged, was trying to figure out what she wants next time, for her shoulder.
Staff writer Leigh Allen contributed information to this story.
by CNB