"When I started, tattoos were seen as something for people on the fringes and rebels," says Dr. Wu (real name: Brian Wu), a respected Los Angeles tattoo artist with 1,8 million followers and jet-set clients. -set, like Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and Drake.
"I come from a very traditional immigrant Asian family, so it's no surprise that my parents weren't too happy about my chosen vocation."
However, the 2.500-year-old Vu, who charges $XNUMX as the starting price for his services, claims that the mention of tattoo ink today does not prejudge negative attitudes.
"My customers are lawyers, doctors, politicians, children celebrating their 18th birthday, grandparents... all kinds of people come to my studio," he explains.
"Not so long ago, I would have been the only tattooed person in society, but in 2022, a person without a tattoo will stand out in some space.
"Today, my parents look favorably on the work I do."
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Vu's comment reflects the phenomenon of contemporary tattoo ubiquity.
According to a survey conducted in 2015 by the company "YouGov", a fifth of British adults have a tattoo, while recent data collected in America by Ipsos showed that 30 percent of the country's residents have at least one tattoo (a number that rises to 40 percent if the respondents are limited to those under 35).
What was once understood as a subculture and more often associated with nomadic sailors and biker gangs than with the middle class, today represents a massive, ubiquitous mainstream movement and an industry in which three billion dollars are turned over annually.
It's as if there's an unwritten rule that the biggest pop stars (Post Malone, Billie Eilish) and athletes (LeBron James, Lionel Messi) should have tattoos all over their bodies and faces, encouraging fans to follow in their footsteps.
Some major fashion companies use tattooed celebrities to make the brand more provocative (heavily tattooed comedian Pete Davidson was recently the face of the brand H&M).
Airline "Virgin Atlantic" allows staff to proudly roll up their sleeves during longer flights.
And the U.S. military, citing "changing social norms," has softened long-standing rules banning the visibility of tattoos on soldiers in its ranks.
"Undeniably, tattooing is all around us," explains Matt Loder, professor of art at the University of Essex and an expert on the history of tattooing.
"Unlike the past, today tattoos are an integral part of culture."
Loder adds:
"The other day I found a British Post advertising flyer in my letterbox on which the father of a small child has a tattoo all over his arm.
"In the past, the public would have criticized a conservative organization like the Post Office if it forwarded material with such content. Now it's seen as something that's advanced."
However, Loder insists that we should not understand the tattoo as a "phenomenon", but as a historical "medium" that neglects its own heritage by relying only on what is currently popular.
In order to fully understand what all tattoos encompass, he says, we have to go back a long way.
"Tattooing as a commercial art form has only been around in the West for about 140 years," he explains, noting that one of the most important drivers in that process was King George V.
As a teenager, during a trip to Japan in 1881, he had the "desired" dragon tattoo made on his arm.
In contrast, he adds, "we must bear in mind that there is physical evidence of tattooing dating back as far as 3250 BC."
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Ancient origin
Loder is referring to Ezio, the European, more precisely the Tyrolean ice man.
His frozen body was preserved under Alpine glaciers along the Austrian-Italian border, when - 5.300 years later, during a walk in the Alps - he was found by a startled couple from Germany.
61 tattoos were found on his body (actually, it is a series of horizontal and vertical lines).
Among them are those that are supposed to have had a therapeutic purpose, judging by the acupuncture - they are grouped in the areas of Eci's joints and lower back, places that, according to anthropologists, caused the degenerative disorder and pain in the ice man.
On the bodies of other discovered ancient corpses, we find even far more complex solutions.
The "Gebelein Man", exhibited in the British Museum for more than a century, has intertwined tattoos of a bull and a sheep on his upper arm.
The naturally mummified corpse dates back to Ancient Egypt's predynastic period, about 5.000 years ago, when tattoos were permanently etched under the skin by using a carbon-based substance [experts assume it's some kind of kerosene].
Also, there is evidence that points to the conclusion that ancient Egyptian women also got tattoos, where experts believe that they resorted to cutting into the skin so that the gods would protect their babies during pregnancy.
In 1981, scientists discovered Amaunet, a priestess of the goddess Hathor in Thebes, which further led to the discovery of the custom of richly tattooing mummified corpses in the lower abdomen area.
The heavily tattooed warrior-priestess known as "Princess Ukoka" was discovered back in 1993 by archaeologists in the Atlas Mountains, which stretch along Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan.
The discovery of this 2.500-year-old corpse was particularly important because of the preservation of the skin and torso with carefully crafted beautiful illustrations of mythical creatures, among which are goat horns.
The princess, who is believed to have died when she was 25 years old, was a member of the Pazyriks, a tribe from the Scythian era that understood tattoos as a sign of social status, as well as a sign by which relatives would be able to recognize each other in the afterlife.
All these discoveries, according to Loder's understanding, refute claims that tattooing is, so to speak, a new "trend" - after all, it is one of the oldest recorded art forms.
According to Loder, "the desire to share with the environment our stories and our desires through a tattoo represents a deeply rooted human need".
However, while some have long considered the tattoo to serve as decoration, it also represented a kind of crude branding.
In the ancient world of Ancient Greece and Rome, it signified punishment and shame, it was a violent sign of convicts and sex workers.
It is a gruesome practice that persisted long after the fall of the Roman Empire, until the American slave trade and the Holocaust.
But parallel to that tradition, it remained a tempting temptation for members of the social elite.
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Celebrity charm
In a great book Subversive Bodies: The Secret History of Women and Tattoos, author Margo Mifflin explores the practice of leg and upper arm tattooing—places that can easily be covered by clothing—by high society women of the 19th century in Europe and America.
One of the first tattoo artists in America was Maud Wagner, who learned the technique of tattooing from her husband and started working in 1907.
Jessie Knight, who started tattooing professionally in 1921, can probably be considered a pioneer on British soil.
Mifflin believes that tattoos for women have always implied countercultural messages.
"Tattooing means that women are free to treat their own bodies," she explains.
"That's the difference compared to men, because women went directly against nature in a way that was forbidden for a long time.
"Thus they gave new meaning to their bodies."
She says the "dark shadow" of the Second World War - when, during the Holocaust, Nazi soldiers tattooed Jewish prisoners for marking purposes - has led to a drop in the number of people wanting to have their skin inked.
However, the general mood changed again in the late 1960s, thanks in part to the influence of Janis Joplin, the heroine of rock and roll, she believes.
"Janice had the famous Florentine bracelet tattooed on her wrist for all to see, as well as a heart above her breast," explains Mifflin.
“She actually turned the tide - she helped make tattoos an attractive mainstream thing. [New York] artist Ruth Marten, who blurred the lines between tattoos and the art world, also contributed to removing the negative preconceptions attached to the tattoo, turning it into art for the wealthy."
Veteran Mister Kartun (real name: Mark Machado) is one of America's greatest living tattoo artists.
Starting as a decorator of "lowriders" (old, long cars) and a respected "teger" in the world of graffiti art, this fifty-two-year-old tattooed some of the biggest American stars at the height of his career, including: Beyoncé, Kobe Bryant, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent.
"In my area," he recalls, a native Los Angeles native, "you could only see typical prison tattoos."
"My mother firmly believed that precisely because of those heavily tattooed gangsters, society does not look favorably on the Latin American community.
"However, to me they were the greatest faces in the world."
"When influential musicians like Eminem, Tupac and 50 Cent got tattoos, the crowd wanted to follow," he adds.
"All of their tattoos are a mirror of pop culture, highlighting issues and inspiring underdogs to make something out of life."
"If Gucci Mane gets his face tattooed, it means he's into what he's doing, and that defiance is something that motivates people."
One of his most famous tattoos is the word "Southside" (South Side) emblazoned across 50 Cent's back.
It is about a dedication to the area where the rapper grew up - Southside Queens; the message of the tattoo is that 50 Cent's success means that he almost literally carries his own destiny on his back, and that anything is possible, even after being shot at nine times.
Kartun created a version of the Old English glyph, which he often saw on the chests of Los Angeles gang members.
On the superstar's back, the tattoo gained grandiosity.
"I was always looking to take the dangerous tattoos from my area, which my mom claimed were the hallmarks of criminals, and create something expensive and glamorous out of them," explains Kartun.
"I wanted to really show her value.
“My mother now lives in a house built with the money from those tattoos, you know? I feel I've succeeded."
The fight against the snobbery of the art world
Despite the tattoo's rich history and unique status as a movable piece of art that people wear on their bodies for the rest of their lives, Kartun says he still encounters condescension from people on high.
"If you tell art school you want to be a master craftsman, they'll tell you it's a dishonest way to make money," he says.
"We create art on the skin in motion, which requires great skill, and at the same time, the people we tattoo consider us therapists and marriage counselors.
"People who attend someone's tattoo and come away with the attitude that it's not art are simply crazy art snobs."
Although snobbish prejudices still persist, Mifflin argues that the worlds of art and tattooing are increasingly intertwined.
As examples, she cites two contemporary masters who helped to remove the barriers between tattoos and high art - Dr. Lacroix (originator of the style recognizable for its macabre and religious motifs) and Vim Delvoye (his tattooed pigs raised a lot of dust in the public eye).
On the other hand, Loder believes that the Japanese tat master Gakin instilled an "avant-garde" edge into this genre.
The problem of the durability of the work mostly separates the world of high art and the masters.
When someone dies and their body decomposes, the tattoo goes too, which means that the original copy of the tattoo artist's work is lost.
In comparison, paintings and photographs continue to live in galleries, bringing authors posthumous recognition.
It's all much more complicated when we're talking about master dads.
A notorious example would be the venture of Dr. Fukushi Mazaichi, a Japanese pathologist known as the "Human Skin Collector", who, as part of his project, took skin from people's backs - with prior consent - after they died and stored their tattoos in the Tokyo Pathology Institute. the museum.
However, the procedure used was complicated and, understandably, unacceptable as a starting point for developing the idea of tattoo preservation.
However, famed New York tattoo artist Scott Campbell believes that technology can finally help tattoo align with art in that field as well.
Together with the Los Angeles talent agency "Cthdr", launched a new platform Skeb shop, which allows artists like Vu and Kartun to sell tattoos as non-fungible tokens (hereinafter: NFT) to a wider audience.
This means that their works will continue to live in the metaworld, that is, they will not share the fate of the tattoo owner's skin after his death.
In fact, in this process there is a digital replica of the tattoo, which Skeb Shop users can then bid on in an online auction.
NFT also includes a meeting, so that the auction participant with the best offer can be drawn on the skin of an online solution.
After the sale, all NFT designs remain available on the portal, which, according to the idea, should be a digital art gallery that preserves tattoos; Tate Museum for Dad Artists.
"At the moment, artists are selling original works based on the time it takes to carve into someone's skin," Campbell tells BBC Culture.
“It means that we sell hours of our lives almost as plumbers or electricians, not as artists; people think of us as merchants who simply cut something on their hands."
"Van Gogh would have remained unknown if he had been tattooing," Campbell believes, "because all his canvases would have died."
"Worms would eat his art".
Thanks to Skeb Shop, the works of tat artists will finally become permanent, instead of mere photographic copies, which, in turn, could help eradicate some of the snobbery Mr. Carton talks about.
"Thanks to Skeb Shop, I can now sell my original works as paintings, just like other fine artists; "For the first time in history, tattoos are on par with a traditional art form," Campbell claims.
He hopes this will lead to exhibitions where the works are almost physically present, such as Tattoo: under your skin, which this year was held in the cultural center Caixa Forum (CaixaForum) in Barcelona.
It is a large historical research conducted around the planet, which includes, among other things, silicone replicas of body parts on which some of the most important tattoo masters have drawn works.
However, Loder is not optimistic about transferring tattoos to NFT, among other things because the process raises the tricky issue of copyright.
"The guy who tattooed Mike Tyson's face sued the film crew Hangover in Bangkok [featuring Mike Tyson] for copyright infringement [because the movie made a copy of that tattoo on one of the characters' faces]," Loder says.
"I think the NFT further complicated the question of who retains the right to a tattoo - the tattoo artist or the person wearing the tattoo, instead of resolving it."
Time will tell if the Skeb Shop represents the beginning of a new era or just a short-lived flash.
On the other hand, the project shows the innovativeness of the artists, who invent new ways to gain the respect of their colleagues in the art industry, instead of the frequent disrespect.
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Gender division
With the tattoo industry predicted to continue to grow for the next three years, Mifflin says reducing the male focus should also be a priority.
A survey conducted in 2017 The report of Statista shows that women are more likely to decide to get a tattoo than men.
Despite this, women who practice tattooing are in a huge minority compared to men in America - the percentage ratio is 25-75 percent.
"Tatu magazines are flooded with naked 'pin-up' girls," says Mifflin.
"The culture is still more male-friendly."
Saša Masiuk, a successful tattoo artist, who, despite being born in Ukraine, made her way in Russia, felt firsthand the gender inequality in this area.
She is the owner of five tat studios located in different parts of the world, and currently lives in Los Angeles.
"When I started tattooing, clients would freak out when I met them because I'm female," she tells the BBC.
"I felt that I needed to outdo myself to prove that I was as good at tattooing as any man."
However, the fact that today Masiuk charges up to $20.000 for her work shows that things are changing.
The general mood has changed when it comes to tattoos, which she believes shows that tattoo culture is not only flourishing in the West.
"Before, when people saw you had tattoos, they thought you were a criminal or an addict," she recalls of the beginning.
"But today, even in cities like St. Petersburg or Moscow, tattoos are accepted as a way of life."
She "hopes" that this acceptance will spill over into more authoritarian areas in Asia, where there is still a taboo when it comes to tattoos.
Ko cites as an example the decision of the authorities in Lanzu (a city in Gansu, northwestern China) two years ago to ban taxi drivers from wearing tattoos on the grounds that they could "disturbing women or children who want to travel".
It would be too much to expect that everyone agrees with Claude Lévi-Strauss' thesis that "tattoos have transformed us from raw animals into ready-made cultural beings".
In a recent op-ed published by The Times, Melanie Phillips wrote that the tattoo makes her feel "physically nauseous," decrying contemporary cultural normalization, something she says points to a "crisis" of moral values.
"There will always be zealots who want to separate tattooing from the institutionalized world of high art," says Dr. Wu wryly.
"Whether some of the Tata designs will be on display at the Whitney Museum in 400 years is hard to say."
"But history has shown that tattooing is a resilient art form."
If artists want to preserve their work for future generations, the tattoo wearer can remove their tattoos easier than ever.
Right now, insiders predict that the market for tattoo removal aids will reach an "incredible" $2029 million by 245.
"In the near future, we will be able to erase and start over to tattoo," Vu adds.
From there, the question arises: Will this change the position of the tattoo as an art form.
Moreover, although Wu says that the current industry is somewhat monotonous, with "drab" and "simplistic" floral solutions suitable for Instagram, this tattoo giant is convinced that on a global level the art itself will become more and more popular in the future.
“Historically, tattoos romanticize the idea of freedom, right?
"Having a tattoo means that you are not limited by social norms and that you want to have an attitude.
"The tattoo was the mark of a revolutionary."
"Tattoos will exist as long as people seek personal freedom."
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