Kevin L. remembers the first tattoo he ever did. It was about 15 years
ago. "It was a heart with flowers around it for my sister," he says with a
laugh. "She was my first guinea pig."
Since then, Kevin L. has done thousands of tattoos. He received his first
one, a music note with wings, at the uncommonly late age of 33. But since
then he's had a "couple hundred hours' worth" of work done on himself.
Kevin L. chooses to keep his last name to himself. He is known simply as
Kevin to his clients. He says this is normal for tattoo artists. They prefer
to use only their first name, or they have a nickname. The reason is safety.
"You don't have any idea who you're dealing with," he says. "You could
be dealing with a crazy stalker. It's like when you go to a grocery store,
all you see is their first name."
Kevin L. says that as you gain experience as a tattoo artist you'll learn
what kinds of tattoos you like to do. It just comes naturally over time. "Everyone
does tattoos in their own style," he says. "Over time you'll create your own
style."
Tattoo styles also evolve over time. "With an older-style tattoo, there
isn't a lot of color blending and shading," explains Kevin L. "New school
[design] looks more realistic, not so cartoony."
Which tattoo designs are most popular? "That definitely goes in waves,"
says Eric Gaudet. He's the manager of a tattoo and piercing studio. "When
it comes to people walking in off the street, a lot of it's celebrity driven,
or by things they see on the Internet, or [by] things they see people having,"
he says.
Gaudet notices that certain designs will become popular for a year or two.
Various people will start bringing in a certain design that is "starting to
make the rounds," he says.
But not everything is affected by trends. "Certain things always tend to
stay in style, like big, large-scale Japanese work or sailor-type work," says
Gaudet.
Pat Sinatra was 22 when she got her first tattoo. It was a star on her
collarbone. She now has so many that she doesn't know the exact number, but
she estimates that her body is about 50 percent covered in tattoos.
Sinatra started tattooing in 1976. She's now president of the Alliance
of Professional Tattooists and has her own tattoo studio in New York State.
She's a tattoo artist who loves her work.
"I get to interpret people's dreams or their vision and I get to manifest
it for them," she says. Sinatra's clients sometimes verbally describe the
image they want. Other times, they bring in a design. "[O]r they just bring
in a mood they want to capture," she says.
With half of her body covered in them, and more than 30 years of experience
giving them to others, Sinatra is someone who understands the enduring appeal
of tattoos. "This is a piece of art that will never be stolen or lost," she
says. "It's theirs. It's something extremely personal."