That Little Guy from Fantasy Island Is All Over the Place
Need more evidence that pop culture is bad culture?
As models flaunted head-to-toe body art and hard rock pulsated in a cavernous ballroom, veteran tattoo artists at a New York convention on Saturday wondered if their once taboo artistry was losing its nonconformist lure.
Americans, especially women, are embracing a practice once considered seedy. A growing number of people are subjecting themselves to the whir of engine-driven needles spitting pigments into their body, tattoo artists said.
The growing number of rockers, Hollywood celebrities and sports stars showing off tattoos spur young people to go under the needle, the artists and fans said.
"For a lot of younger people, tattooing has become part of life, like buying a pair of shoes," said Spider Webb, 60, who has published books on the art of tattooing since the 1970s. "It's like computers, no one used to have them, now everyone has; no one (they knew) had tattoos, now everyone has."
Long-time tattoo photographer Charles Gatewood of San Francisco said: "It (tattooing) is so popular that it has lost some of its magic. It was like a club, a secret society and family. Now it's gotten commercialized, co-opted and watered down ... in the opinion of some people."
