What's Art Got to Do With It?

photo by Alternative Art

Serenity and bright colors has the power to relax any individual in any sort of anxious times. However walking into Alternative Arts did not give off this impression. Metallica blares through the overhead speakers while a woman with arms covered in tattoos bobs her head and answers phone according to the beat. The people in the waiting room give off a bored look but if one looks closer, the tall brunette anxiously checks her cellphone every three minutes while a blonde male flips through magazines without a care for any page. 

Stephanie Allen jokes half-heartedly with her sister and friend while waiting for her name to be called up. Showing off her first tattoo on her ankle, Stephanie says the second one won’t be half as bad. “I want to get this tattoo because I love flowers and that’s what my grandpa used to call me when I was younger…but in Italian” she jokes. 

Stephanie Allen

Stephanie lies down on the chair and pulls her shirt up to her bra. She tells the man the exact design and waits for him to trace it on the side of her stomach. Stephanie then puts her headphones in and hugs her pillow while she waits for the first pin. After three hours, Stephanie’s cherry blossom tree is done and swollen. Her mother walks in and congratulates her on going through with it.

 

Art is a human expression of imagination that can be viewed in many forms. A popular form of art many youth have embraced would be tattooing. Some argue that their body is an empty canvas waiting for the right picture while some just find pleasure in getting tattoo after tattoo to remember events that have happened in their lives. Others like North Carolina native Devo’n Davis-Baker views tattoos as a form of showing his lost ones that they are not forgotten.   

Devo'n Baker-Davis

With “In Loving Memory” tattooed across his chest, he reminds himself of his grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, cousins, and childhood friends.  He recalls that his first tattoo at the age of 16 was not in a licensed tattoo parlor but in someone’s house. Praying hands with sunrays coming from it on my left shoulder was meant for his Grandma Patt Greer. Devo’n will always remember the piercing needle penetrating his skin. He felt no pain until the needle “got close to the shoulder bone, it started to hurt because the bone was right there. But other than that it was like an annoying vibration that wouldn’t stop.” After that, Devo’n moved on to get 3 other tattoos including the In Loving Memory one.

Joseph Kidane has had the opportunity to sketch dozens of people’s desired tattoos. With Love and Hate on each back arm, Joseph likes to think of himself as just “helping out my friends.” Rumored to have Nympho tatted right below his belt line, Joseph simply says "It's only for the ladies" with a smile. Joseph humbles himself by making designs for close family members. 

Recahn Clayton

Nineteen year old Recahn Clayton is the defensive end for Garden City Community College in Garden City, Kansas. His first tattoo was at the age of 14 and he showed no excitement for it. “It was a random tattoo because honestly my brother was getting a tattoo so I wanted to get one too.” The tattoo consisted of a star the size of a blackberry placed on his right arm. When I asked him to show me, he said he had been embarrassed of his and decided to cover it up with more tattoos. Now with over sixteen tattoos, Recahn showed no indication of slowing down with his body art. His most recent tattoo was this past March with “angels and clouds because He’s always watching over me.” 

 

Tattoos sometimes start off as meaningless body art and sometimes they initially have good intentions.  Either way, art is in the eye of the beholder.