Body art on campus

By Angie Bushway

Body art is becoming very popular among students on the GMC campus. As the weather gets warmer and clothing becomes more scant, more and more people are revealing their flowers, moons, stars, butterflies, snakes, and whatever else they may have had permanently rendered on their skin.

Despite the risks and responsibilities, many students spent their winter or spring breaks going through the tattooing process. Once you've decided what it is you want for a tattoo, the process begins by finding a reputable tattoo artist or establishment. A good body art establishment will use a new, sterile needle, and show it to you in the package before it is opened. The artist will wear gloves, and clean (and possibly shave) your skin prior to tattooing. Their whole tattooing area will be clean and professional looking. They will ask for your ID, and have you sign a waver before beginning. Small tattoos can cost from $45 to $100, and larger ones will be more. It is a very expensive process, but people consider it money well spent.

Depending on the placement of your tattoo, the next step can be very painful. Getting a tattoo on a more fatty area will hurt less than an area with more muscle or very close to a bone. For example, getting a tattoo on your inner ankle will probably be more painful than getting one on your thigh. The degree of pain will also depend on the person's tolerance for it. Some people will take ibuprofen or acetaminophen (but never aspirin) shortly before the procedure to reduce the pain.

The artist will begin by placing a temporary image of your tattoo on your skin to ensure that you are pleased with the placement. Once you're ready, the needle will be dipped in the outline color, and the outlining of your design will begin. The sound of the instrument that is used to do the procedure can be compared to a dentist's drill. After the outlining, the filling will begin. Some have said that this is the most painful part.

After it's all over, you will receive your care instructions. Wear loose-fitting clothing if you have to cover the tattoo, don't give it too much sun, keep it clean, and use an A & D ointment on it. There is a lot of controversy over what kind of ointment should be used after tattooing. It's best just to do as instructed by the person who did the work. The after-care process usually takes 1-2 weeks, and must be done properly to ensure that the tattoo will heal properly.

There are many dangers to getting a tattoo, other than the amount of pain and irritation to the site of the tattoo. If the establishment does not show you your new, clean, sterile needle in the package, walk out. Dirty tattoo needles can cause a number of health problems, including infection and transfer of disease. Recent studies being done on tattoo ink are revealing that copper and nickel can be found in some inks. People who are allergic to nickel will have problems with their tattoos, and there are other ingredients that people have been allergic to as well. The FDA does not regulate tattoo ink, so there's no labeling that customers have available to judge ink by. Otherwise, provided that the tattooing is done by a competent professional, and is properly taken care of, tattoos can be fairly safe to get.
18-year-old GMC freshman Kasey Benthin has two tattoos, the most recent was done over spring break this year. "I have an anklet," Kasey says, describing her first tattoo. "On the outside of my ankle is a single lilac blossom and wrapping around the inside of my ankle is vines and leaves. On my spine is an unfinished painting by Salvador Dali, ÔFigure of a WomanÉ'. It's a sketch of a woman's body and her head is a red and yellow bouquet of flowers. To the right in the distance is a girl running with a jump rope."

Many tattoos hold meaning for the people who choose them, and Kasey's tattoos are no exception. "Lilacs are my favorite flowers. I wanted something organic and pretty. I wanted [it to be] an anklet because I like them. I chose the other one because, well, she's an unfinished painting so she's incomplete and she's alone and she seems like a strong figure to me. And she's just a little bizarre because her head is a bouquet of flowers. I like that. I wanted it on my back because it just seemed like a good back piece. It seemed like a good place to have a strong figure."

Just like with all tattoos, the pain varied between the two that Kasey chose. As stated earlier, ankle tattoos can be very painful. "The ankle hurt like a bitch," she says. "It was the worst pain I've ever had. It was the most acute, stabbing pain in my life. It felt like razor blades digging into my bones over and over. I could feel my foot vibrate. It was creepy. I almost fell asleep during the back piece. Certain parts hurt more than others, but it wasn't that bad at all. I had the flower touched up and it took him less than a minute. It was more painful than having my whole back done." Kasey says that on a scale of 1-10 ("10 being like child birth"), she would rate her back piece a 4, and the anklet a 10. "I've never been through child birth, but my mom said it was like child birth when she had one done, so she would give it a 10."