Long Form Draft 1 Caroline Nayden
Stick and Poke Tattoos at Oberlin 11/16/15
Young people have always flocked to cool trends. Exciting fads that identify a person as exotic and radical. But, does a trend go too far when the effects become permanent? Oberlin students don’t think so. Stick and poke tattoos are a popular fashion choice for a lot of students, and just like regular tattoos, the ink lasts forever.
There are a few stick and poke artists on campus including Beatrix Parola (20) and Andrea Wang (18).
Wang is a freshman at Oberlin and is just beginning her stick and poke career. She tattood a few friends at art camp over the summer and would like to continue during her time in college. She advertises her skills as a conversation starter and a way to meet new people.
Parola is a third year at Oberlin College and is very passionate about tattoos. She has been giving her friends stick and poke tattoos since her freshman year, but isn’t necessarily a fan of the trend. She disagrees with the premise of stick and pokes, but does enjoy giving them.
“It accomplishes my secret fantasy of being a tattoo artist,” she said.
A stick and poke tattoo is done with a handheld needle instead of a tattoo gun. “They’re hand poked tattoos using some kind of pointy object,” Parola said.
These tattoos are usually done by unlicensed artists, outside of parlors and are popular among young adults.
“My friend used to do them outside in the dirt,” Parola added. “And they were all drunk.”
Stick and pokes are the do-it-yourself tattoo and are appealing because of the low cost, accessibility and rebellious connotation.
“It takes a certain kind of person to get one,” said Wang. “Like, you’d let me do that to your body?”
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... are beautiful. “It’s my way of collecting art,” she said.
She does think some of the stick and pokes she did are cool. “I did someones area code on their butt,” she said. She added that many people get stick and pokes in that location because it’s easily concealed.
“you can hide a butt tattoo from anyone if you really tried,” she said.
Parola said that other common locations are upper arm and above the knee, both easily concealable.
While stick and poke tattoos may be something to be concealed in the future, they are popular for a reason. It fulfills a desire for rebellion and experimentation, and for some, results in a really meaningful tattoo.
Professional tattoos are definitely safer, but they are expensive, inconvenient and often impersonal. The Oberlin stick and poke artists are available, but recommend a cautious approach to these funky tattoos.
Today, tattooing is the sixth-fastest-growing retail business in the United States, and the single fastest growing demographic group seeking a tattoo is middle-class suburban women (Cartoon, 2016). To put it plainly, the specialty of tattooing no more just engages insubordinate "social freaks." Rather, you are general as prone to discover a Fortune 500 executive, Doctor, Governor and Attorney are wearing a tattoo as a punk rocker.
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Tattoos have been utilized in various ways for thousands of years, ranging from punishment, to status symbols and indications of religious beliefs. They have served as the ultimate illustration of cultural diffusion in America, and despite generally carrying a negative social stigma, perception of tattoos has continued to evolve into a more acceptable practice.
It is true that the young people have more tattoos than the old people. 36% of Americans between ages 18-29 have a tattoo (Brooks). The fact that society is accepting this violation means that there are more people who are yet to confirm, of which they will in the near future. It is also evident that people wear tattoos to show commitment because lovers for instance wear the images or the names of their lovers and others wear the images of their icons to show that they matter to them. This kind of permanence on someone’s body shows commitment and it is admirable to the world.
Society has changed in many ways over the years; at one point tattoos were considered unprofessional and disgusting to most people, but today, they are quite common amongst young adults and people who enjoy art. Parents and people of many older generations, sometimes struggle to understand why this new interest in tattoos has been able to consume American culture so quickly. Prior to this boom of interest in tattoos, there were many horror stories that surrounded the subject due to unsanitary tools used and possible diseases a person could catch if a mistake was made. Lois Desocio is one of those adults who has struggled to understand tattoos, especially since her son Alec began to fill his body with them. As Alec’s collection of body art continues
In the journal titled “To Ink or Not to Ink: The Meaning of Tattoos Among College Students”, the authors discuss how students in college feel about tattoos. They address how many people do or do not have a tattoo, the meaning behind the tattoos, and why the non-tattooed students have chosen not to get one. The students with tattoos were said to of taken time to decide what their tattoos was going to be of, where they were going to have it done, and the placement of
Certainly, tattoos and piercings are a lot more popular nowadays than they were thirty years ago. Now, 1 in every 10 Americans have them, while back then, 1 in every 100 had them. Your body is a blank canvas, and you’re just making it something fun to look at. Today, people get tattoos and piercings for many different reasons, such as beauty, art, and fashion, individuality, group affi...
Tattooing is not just a recent fad. Tattooing has been around for a very long time. "The current first proven incident of a tattoo dates back 4,000 years B.C. a traveler was found in Italy near Austria, preserved in the permafrost of a glacier. Carbon dating and arte facts found near him suggest that he is over 5,300 years old" (Tattoos and Design). Tattoos have been used to identify a person with a particular group or just to decorate a person's body. "Some designs are symbolic: In Japan, carp mean bravery; peonies mean good fortune" (McNab 42).
Tattoos and body modifications have been around for many generations. They first began in 3370 BC and were used by Europeans and Egyptians. Both tattoos and body modifications are defined as a cultural representation of self-expression and sometimes even religion. In the article “Tattoos and Piercing: Issues of Body Modification and the Workplace,” Dr. Elzweig states, “Although tattooing is not a new phenomenon, the number of people who have tattoos has increased significantly and continues to rise. Life magazine estimated in 1936 that only 10% of me American population was tattooed in whole or in part (One out of ten Americans is tattooed, 1936)” (Elweig, Peeples).
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Tattoos are a waste of money, until you put a story to the art. For years’ adults have hated tattoos, and their rebellious teens loved them. Now looking around, more and more people are getting them, including elderly people. What caused this social change today?
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According to tattoo acceptability in the medical setting (2015), there is revealed that millions of people, who have tattoos in today’s society increase by 13 % since 2007 and especially approximately 42% of adults have tattoos (Tattoo Acceptability in the Medical Setting, 2015).
Dating back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries North American tattooing originated in the island of Tahiti, and other small pacific islands including Samoa and Hawaii (DeMello). The modification by U.S tattooists was to “fit a local sensibility emphasizing patriotism rather than exoticism” (DeMello). Martin Hildebrandt, was the first known tattoo artist in the United States as a professional. Shortly after the first mechanical tattooing machine was created, up until this point tattoos had been done by hand. A tattoo machine was invented because tattoos become a fad with mili...
Tattoos have become more prevalent in our society over the last few decades. What used to be a social faux pa or a negative brand has come to be a more acceptable life choice in our culture. However, only those who have joined the inked-up club can describe the sensation of modifying one’s body with art. From the pain and tantric feeling from the stinging that is released as a person allows themselves to be marked for the rest of their life, and the hot pierce of the needle that gives a sensation of feeling alive and the desire to do this again. Tattoos have become a major social focus today, so the psychology behind their popularity warrants discussion. Ultimately, people who get tattoos yearn for individual expression through artwork, acceptance or adherence to some rite of passage, and the physical satisfaction that only the experience of tattooing can provide.