Tattoos: not just for sailors |
 Popularity of living art is on the upswing With the mood set by classic rock music and a faint smell of incense, Betty Yammarino sat down, relaxed, and allowed
her back to become a canvas for an evolving work of art. A red rose on her right shoulder - her first tattoo at age 30 - has metamorphosed into a scene involving a fiery dragon. It covers most of her back. On her left shoulder, to complement the mythical reptile, is a woman standing on a crescent moon. Nearly 25 hours of work later, the design is still not finished. At 41, Yammario says she is getting bolder in having her body decorated by a process in which the skin is punctured by a needle and indelible colors are inserted. "You look at the artwork and the imagination, and you just go wild," said the petite blonde, dressed in a black leather halter top and shorts adorned with skulls. Tattoos seem to have cracked the mainstream in recent years. Once considered a trademark for sailors and punk rockers, the permanent markings are now popular with people of all ages, races and professions, tattoo artists say. Chuck Eldridge, owner and tattooist at Berkeley's Tattoo Archive, should know. His clients range fom "Deadheads to lawers to nurses to truck drivers, you name it." Perhaps it was once true, but Fremont tattoo artist Advance said that nowadays, "Your not a terrible person if you got a tattoo." Greg Penn, a manager at Ed Hardy's Tattoo City in San Fransisco, said MTV has been "a major vehicle for opening up the public's eyes toward things they never thought of before.
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 Advance, Yammarino's husband, is the talent behind her back and owner of Fremont's only licensed tattoo parlor, Tattoos By Advance. He says he goes only by Advance, but his business license with the city lists him as Vincent Yammarino. The 40-something artisted painted on canvas until afriend introduced him to tattooing 14 years ago. Back then, it wasn't too exciting. People wanted roses, military insignia or other relatively banal designs. But new artists have introduced ideas, and people are more open to letting creative juices flow, he said while adding shades of purple and blue to Yammarino's tattoo. Many tattooists consider their work a true art form. "It's not bold and chunky anymore," Pennn said of the designs.
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Variety of choices The walls of Advance's Irvington District Office are covered with his pencil drawings of the possibilities: flowers, animals, skulls. "It's great. I love it because you've got somebody to talk to. It helps creativity, too, because I try to get input from the person to see what they like," said Advance, whose right arm bears a dragon tattoo. And in some ways, it's more challenging than working on canvas. "Skin is a lot harder to work with. There's no making mistakes and painting over it." Yammarino added, "It pays better." True. Prices range from 40 dollars for small designs like a flower to thousands of dollars for something elaborate like Yammarino's. Advance averages more than 100 clients each month. "I don't have to paint something and wait for somebody to buy it," he said. Advance learned his craft during an apprenticeship under an established tattoo artist. "If you just buy the equipment and practice on your friends, by the time you really get the hang of it, you might not have any friends," he joked. |
 '...a freedom thing' Yammarino, who works in a Fremont health food store, said a tattoo holds a certain power. "It's kinda like a freedom thing. It's not taxable, and no one can take it away from me," she said. And it's also fun to look at in the mirror, she added. Penn, 28, is not a tattoo artist but his body is covered with panthers, dragons and a phoenix. "There's the whole tough-guy image. I think alot of people use them as a protective shell." But he said he enjoys their beauty. While comfortable with the permanency of a tattoo, some are concerned about the safety of the procedure, especially because of AIDS, hepatitas B and other infectious diseases. |
Disposable needles 'There's absolutely no risk if you are going to a reputable place that follows proper procedures," said Kate Clayton, health education manager at the Tri-City Health Center in Fremont. Proper procedures include use of disposable needles. Officials at the Alameda County Health Department and the AIDS Project of the East Bay were not aware of any cases in the United States of HIV infection from tattooing. But over the last 15 years, there have been three or four reported cases of Hepatitis B in which tattoo parlors were the probable sources of infection, according to Dr. Bob Benjamin, medical director of the communicable disease division of the county department. "The real problem is Hepatitis B. The potential problem is HIV," Benjamin said. There is also a risk for bacterial infections, but these too can be prevented with proper precautions and care, said Dr. Jeffrey Carmel of East Bay Dermatology Medical Group in Fremont. He added that some people may develop allergies to the pigments used. Advance uses disposable needles and ink wells with fresh inks. Sterilization, he said, is effective, but clients want peace of mind. "It (Disease) hasn't really affected professional tattooing," Advance said. "But a lot of people are now hesitant to sit at a party and get something scribbled on."
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Taking it off Advance is occastionally asked to cover or repair bad tattoos when people outgrow their designs or when a lover breaks up with the mate whose name is emblazoned on his arm. Covering or touching up is not too difficult, but removels, which Carmel and his co-workers do, aren't easy. "It is incredibly difficult to get rid of these without leaving significant scars behind," Carmel said. More effective lasers are being developed to make removals cleaner, but none are being used yet, he said. Yammarino is sure she'll keep her tattoos. And she thinks her design won't spread from her back, but she added with a smile, "You never know what your'e going to do." |
San Jose Mercury News Studio
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