By Erykah Benson & Sydney Simoncini
The Tower
Grosse Pointe South HS
1st Place
Division 1, News Writing
In-Depth Feature
It’s going to be a cluster of old fashioned flowers, Emily Tujaka ‘16 said. She imagines an palette of whimsical reds, muted pinks and beiges blooming from the middle of her arm — not too distracting or bright, but a subtle decoration that compliments her identity.
With a countdown on her phone for the past three years, Tujaka has long-awaited the day when she would turn 18 and be able to legally get her first tattoo.
“I’m planning on getting a tattoo the week after I turn 18,” Tujaka said. “It’s about a month and a half away… and it’s a huge deal to me.”
Tujaka is making sure everything goes as planned. After researching and looking at multiple artists, she came across the one with the style she wanted. Her artist, Ryan Metric, works at Chroma Tattoo in West Bloomfield.
“He (Metric) randomly followed me one day and liked one of my photos, and I looked through his work, and it totally blew me away. Riley Lynch actually designed me a tattoo that I’m going to take to my tattoo artist when I go for my consultation.”
While the legal age to get a tattoo is 18, teens are allowed to get a tattoo with parental consent as early as age 16. However, Tujaka said her mother will not allow her to get a tattoo until she becomes of age. .
“I had asked my mom a few times, and she just wanted me to wait until 18 so it would be more special” Tujaka said.
The unique permanence of a tattoo makes commitment essential, according to Rae Woodman ‘17.
“I personally wouldn’t want to get a tattoo at that age because I feel like I need more time to be clearly thinking of what I’m doing to my body,” Woodman said. “I wouldn’t want to get one at least until my 20s, because it’s so permanent, and you’re going to want to get something you want to keep forever.”
For now, Woodman said, she is content with drawing on herself and using henna (crushed pigments from a plant of the same name), a form of temporary body art, according to Silk & Stone.com.
“I really like doing that kind of thing, it’s not completely permanent, and it goes away within a couple of washes,” Woodman said. “And for now, that’s fine for me, because I don’t need something to be completely permanent, because I haven’t decided what I’d want to have on my body for the rest of my life.”
Others are not so patient. Instead, some teens may resort to alternative, and possibly dangerous methods of body art.
Stick-and-poke tattooing, for example, is a popular do-it-yourself method that people often use instead of getting a tattoo professionally done. On websites like instructables.com and wikihow.com, anyone can look up how to take a bottle of black ink, rubbing alcohol and a needle to become their very own tattoo artist.
But that’s a terrible idea, according to tattoo artist Karlos Kowaleski from Chroma Tattoo in West Bloomfield.
“There’s no pros to it whatsoever,” Kowaleski said. “It’s dangerous, and it’s unprofessional. A tattoo by nature is a permanent thing, so if you have a large portion of people walking around with shoddy little amateur work like that, then the general public, the general consensus is going to be that that’s some kind of benchmark for tattooing and what to expect from tattoos. So it kind of besmirches the fine art side.” Woodman agrees.
“I personally would hate to get stick and poke. It can be dangerous, even if the person that’s doing it knows what they’re doing,” Woodman said. “Even though everything is sterilized, there are things that can go wrong, and your tattoo can end up looking not the way you wanted it to. If you don’t get the ink deep enough, then it can run under the skin, so it looks smeared but you can’t fix it.”
This unconventional method, while growing in popularity, also has the potential to spread harmful bacteria as result of dirty needles, which pose a high risk of contracting diseases like HIV and hepatitis if needles are not properly sterilized, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
“It’s literally a needle repeatedly going into your skin, and it’s so easy to transfer the germs and get really sick from it. I’m okay with them as long as everything is done super carefully and mindfully,” Tujaka said. Regardless of the method used, body art has often been seen as a taboo
in society, especially in the professional world. Studies by Salary.com, a job searching site featuring tips on applying for a job, found that 39 percent of people say tattoos and piercings give employers a negative outlook on their employees.
“I think (the negative outlook) is really stupid, in short,” Woodman said. “But, the reason I think it’s so stupid is because it’s mostly in the corporate world that has a problem with tattoos … And I think that by not hiring people with large amounts of tattoos, that they’re kind of enforcing their stereotype of being robots and not having feelings.” However, certain tattoos come off better than others.
“Tattoos on the neck would be perceived more negatively than a small tattoo on the wrist or ankle,” Tom DiDonato, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Lear Corporation, said. “Another critical factor would be the subject matter of the tattoo. Anything vulgar would be a big issue, while a butterfly would not be a big deal.”
When interviewing for a job, employers may also be more negatively biased towards visible tattoos than others.
“In my opinion, a tattoo would never provide a hiring advantage,” DiDonato said. “At best a visible tattoo would be neutral but could, depending on the interviewer, be a big negative.”
Though large corporations may be strict when it comes to body art, law firm’s views can be much more severe, DiDonato said.
“Law firms tend to be quite conservative, and since they must always sell business, they might be reluctant to have anything that might inhibit a potential client from hiring the firm,” DiDonato said. In addition, DiDonato said the public’s view of tattoos has changed in the last decade, both inside and out of the business world.
“While perceptions of tattoos have changed over the last 10 years, they still have a long way to go before they are viewed as a positive attribute in a firm or business,” DiDonato said. “Getting a tattoo is a personal decision, but if a person ultimately wants to join a business or firm and they really want a tattoo, then they should consider getting one that is not visible.”
The difference isn’t just noticeable in the corporate world, but also in the media, Kowaleski said.
“If you look around you can see tattoos everywhere,” Kowaleski said. “There’s like seven different tattoo reality television shows on TV currently, so it’s definitely part of our culture and whatnot, so I do think that clients still carry that edge. But I think it’s a self-appointed stigma. I really think if people stopped worrying about it that way, then it would pretty much disappear right away.”
Age also plays a role in the perception of tattoos in the workplace. According to salary.com, those between the ages of 18 and 25 have a 78 percent tolerance towards tattoos while those 60 and older have a 27 percent tolerance.
As younger generations flood into the workforce, the tolerance for tattoos has also changed over time, Tujaka said.
“Society is moving into being more accepting of tattoos in the workplace,” Tujaka said. “I’m really excited about that. That shouldn’t be a determining factor in getting a job, because it is an extensional reflection of who you are.”
For others, a tattoo is a creative way to commemorate important, or emotional moments in their lives.
“My grandpa is also a really huge tattoo fan,” Tujaka said.
“He has a zipper tattooed over his scar from open heart surgery.”
While tattoos can be strategically placed over top of scars, they’re still often used simply as a form of self-expression.
“My grandma has tattoos all over,” Woodman said. “She’s got a sleeve. And I think that’s awesome. It’s awesome because she rocks it. She’s in her late 60s, and she’s got all these beautiful tattoos. And I’ve seen them as she’s gotten older, and they haven’t got them any less beautiful.”
After her first tattoo, Tujaka said she wants to get more later in life, maybe even a quarter sleeve.
“I’m just going to see where life takes me and go from there in terms of what I want to get and when I’ll be getting more,” Tujaka said. Now rising from the depths of taboo, Tujaka said tattoos are becoming symbols of individualism.
“I think that tattoos are great, and one of the best ways to express yourself,” Tujaka said. “I love the way they have evolved throughout history, when they started out as being a cultural thing, and now it has also become an art form.”