STJ, Ink-Week 5: Bringing It All Together

Over the past few weeks I  have talked to many interesting people about their tattoos. Over this time, I have discussed a few specific subjects with each when it comes to tattoos. Subjects like a first tattoo experience, the stigma behind "tattoo people" and cover-up tattoos, to name a few. I feel as though this week's blog would be a good time to recap and discuss some of these topics that I've covered in a hope to better understand tattoo culture.

One topic that all of my interviewees agreed on was that of "tattoo people", which was covered in week two of STJ, Ink. The topic of tattoo people deals with the theory that we live in a day and age in which it is acceptable for any person to get a tattoo, whereas in the past it was usually reserved for outlaws and prisoners.  With the exception of the elderly, I can safely conclude that the time in which there were "tattoo people" is far behind us and that this development has been an important step for tattoo acceptance.

The other topic that I felt was one of the most interesting was when I asked my interviewees about their first tattoo experiences.  The answers on this differed a lot more than the answers to the "tattoo people" topic in terms of both expectations and actual results. For example, when I interviewed Nicole, she told me that she was quite nervous about the first experience whereas when I interviewed Cliff, he said that he was very confident about the situation and was not nervous at all. When it comes to first tattoos, I've found that there is about a 50/50 split with those who were very sure and confident about their tattoos and those who were nervous about the experience (many of these people also seemed to do less planning on the tattoo than the confident people).

Me during one of my first tattoo experiences

As I continue to talk to more people and I continue to progress with this blog, I hope to learn more about the cultures of tattoos. I will continue make updates such as this every month or so as I feel it is necessary as to the mission of this blog.

Once again, as required by the class, I will now take the time to update you on my weekly Presidential Campaign highlight. It should come as no surprise to you that my highlight for this week would have to be the Presidential Debate that took place on Wednesday between President Obama and Governor Romney. The obvious highlight of this debate was the strong showing of Governor Romney which lead to a huge explosion of media negativity towards the Obama Campaign as well as praise towards the challenger's campaign. In my opinion, I believe that the showing at the debate will probably become a non-issue as we inch closer to election day.