Body art popular

    The walls were covered with artwork and a constant buzzing filled the room as Robert Bell walked into Uncle Freddie’s in Buford to get his first tattoo.
    Bell, a sophomore, business major, chose a tribal band to encircle his left calf. Bell said he always wanted a tattoo and chose this design because no one he knew had one like it.
    “I was a little nervous at first,” he said. “I didn’t know what it was going to feel like.”
    Like Bell, many GCSU students are getting tattoos as their popularity increases especially among college-aged people.
    Tattoos have become so popular that 36% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 now have at least one tattoo, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
    College students get them because they see them on celebrities and on professional athletes, according to Michelle Owens, a tattoo artists at Bluz Tattooz.
    “It’s a trend, a way to express themselves,” she said.
    The trend lies within placement of the tattoo and not necessarily in design, said the owner of Pair-O-Dice Tattoo and Body Piercing, known only as Charlie.
    He said that men typically place them on the arms, chest or back, while women typically want them on the lower back or hips.   “The designs are just as varied as the individual,” Charlie said. “Females tend to want sexy, cute things but guys get all
sorts of designs.”
    Charlie also stresses that information is very obtainable, for students particularly, via the Internet and that many students take advantage of this.
    “Most of the students that come in already know what to look for and what questions to ask,” he said.
    Charlie wants students to be informed on the issue and said that is why he and his wife have been working with the school for the past five years including doing resident assistant presentations in the dorms.
 “There’s a pretty strong desire for (tattoos) and the more information a person has, the better decision he can make,” Charlie said.
    He said that he thinks students understand how serious tattoos are and that they are permanent.
    “You have to know that there are risks, safety has to be taken into consideration.”
    Safety is an issue that worries Alice Loper, director of student health services.
    “The dangers include infections such as hepatitis B and C, AIDS and other blood born illnesses.” Loper said.
    She said hepatitis B and C do not always go away and can lead to liver damage and cancer.
    Students need to consider everything before being tattooed, said Sallie Coke, a campus nurse practitioner. They need to realize there are other, less permanent options such as henna tattoos that are safe because they do not break the skin.
    “The biggest thing is that the skin is your first barrier to disease and you don’t want to endanger that,” she said.
    Coke also said that if a student is going to get a tattoo to place it somewhere it can be covered up at a job interview. This idea is shared by tattoo artists who will sometimes help students with their decisions.
    “Sometimes we’ll try to slow them down,” Owens said. “We talk more students out of (getting tattoos) than into them, especially when they come in and want something big on their forearm.”
    Bell said he has no regrets about getting his first tattoo, and that he will definitely be getting another.
    “I’m going with a friend next week for him to get his,” he said. “I’m not ready yet, to get another, but I’ll be looking.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 15 2006. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry