Intomyskin

I know I am late with this post, but I wrote my own thoughts about Lyle back when he passed away, but never got around to posting them. I think it is fair to say that Lyle Tuttle was absolutely the pivotal character in bringing tattooing to a wider population. I believe there is a direct unbroken line between Tuttle tattooing Janis Joplin in 1970, and the popularity and mainstreaming of tattooing that we see today. The fact that this website exists, where people of all backgrounds are sharing their enthusiasm about tattooing is a testament to the movement that Tuttle set in motion. I was 18 when I read about Tuttle tattooing Joplin in Rolling Stone. It stoked my interest in tattooing, and I have followed it closely ever since. My girlfriend (now wife) and I – two good, normal clean scrubbed middle class kids – got tattoos a couple of years later because Tuttle made it seem accessible and appealing. Tuttle’s tattooing of Joplin generated interest by newspapers and magazines, probably in part because a woman getting a tattoo was something virtually unheard-of at that time, so articles exploiting that angle attracted readers. Nevertheless, Tuttle was quoted or referred to in almost every single one of those articles, and amazingly became the subject of a feature in in a 1972 issue of Life magazine, the most popular family publication in America at the time. He was quotable, said things in a humorous way. He was just outrageous enough to be interesting, but cleaned-up enough to be suitable for mainstream consumption. He was a character. I have read that Tuttle was somewhat controversial among some old time tattooers, some of whom viewed him as a shameless self-promoter, and resented the popularity of tattooing that he fueled, feeling that it ruined tattooing, taking away its outlaw cachet. That is a topic for another discussion, but suffice to say that Tuttle was the straw that stirred the drink. I have often wondered if the popularity of tattooing would have grown as it has – or would have grown at all – if another artist had tattooed Janis Joplin. I can easily imagine a different, more crusty tattooer at that time being interviewed after tattooing her, and saying something like, “F_ck ‘em. They want a tattoo, so I give it to them, and they pay me. Chicks, guys, I don’t care. Just so they pay me. But all these goddam hippie chicks really have no f_cking business getting tattooed. They don’t know what tattooing is about.” His quote might have made it into Rolling Stone, but would have done little to make a more conventional clientele feel good about tattooing. I doubt that he would have been widely quoted in other magazines and newspapers, and he certainly would have never made it into Life magazine. He probably would have done nothing to promote the industry to a new clientele. He would have reinforced the same decades-old perceptions of tattooing as a gritty, outsider practice carried out by outlaws on outlaws. in a sense Tuttle was precisely the right guy, in the right place, at the right time. Part showman, part salesman, part promoter. He had one foot firmly in the traditions of tattooing, and the other in the counterculture that evolved in the 1960s and 70s. I suspect that many of us on these forums would have never gotten tattooed were it not for the wheels that Tuttle set in motion nearly fifty years ago, and the tattoo landscape of today would been much different without him.

@CharmedBy “wrapping,” I was envisioning something large wrapping or spiraling around your whole lower leg, incorporating your rose. But I understand that you don’t want to go with anything big, and that’s cool. The more I look at it, IMHO, I’d leave it alone. Move to your arms. Your rose is a really striking tattoo. When I first saw the picture I just said “Wow!” It wasn’t just the tattoo, which is very pretty – it was also the whole composition: Simple, nicely executed rose, perfectly placed on your shin, dramatic contrast between tattoo and plain skin, just very striking. Honestly, if it were me, I wouldn’t add a thing.

@tertia - kind of a late response to this, but that's is a very nice rose. Very bold and solid. Congrats!

@Charmed– I'm definitely a fan of large pieces and heavy coverage. But I have to say that there is sometimes something very dramatic about a single well-placed tattoo, and yours falls into that category. It is like a single painting hanging in the middle of a wall, it sort of focuses the eye. Very pretty! That being said, the wrapping idea sounds nice. Alternatively, since you seem to be inclined to get more tattoos, maybe you could move to another part of your body for your next piece, and let this one sit for a while as you ponder ideas for your leg. As @Hogrider said, think about where you want to go with your leg. Do you want an integrated large piece, or a collection of pieces?

@NearFantastica - Just wondering how it is going, and how you are feeling about your tattoo now that you have had some time to adjust to it?

... when you watch cooking shows on TV and pay more attention to the participants' tattoos than the food.

Good point @tertia. The trust part. You research, do your homework, and so on, like you said, and I think that maximizes the probability of satisfaction. But the moment the needle first hits your skin, you have implicitly accepted the outcome, and that's scary.

I think that your tattoo is very nice, very well done, Congratulations! @NearFantastica - I can't speak from personal experience since I'm still in the planning stages for a large tattoo, but based on some reading that I've done, people often have to get used to the change that a large tattoo makes to their body. Some people have said that they loved their tattoo, but it took a long time to get used to the fact that it was actually there. I saw a youtube video where a person with a new sleeve said that it took a while to accept that their arm was totally colored. When you are planning, it is all wonderful, but abstract. After it is complete, it may still be wonderful, but it is now real. It's there, every day. If it is any consolation, people often say that once they adjusted to this big change, they were very happy with their tattoo.

Thanks @bongsau!. I PMed @hoggand he was very helpful, said he enjoyed working with her, said she was "a wonderful, interesting, kind person. She has tons of great stories" I'm still hoping somebody here has experience with Becca Roach too.

Has anyone here been tattooed by Jill Bonny (Horiyuki) or Becca Roach? I'm considering them for a Japanese back piece and more. Based on pictures I've seen online, I like their work, but I just wondered if anyone here who had been tattooed by them might be able share experience about working with them ....bedside manner, chemistry, vibes, process, comfort, etc?

I’m considering a Canadian artist for my tattoo (I’m in the USA). It will be a large piece, so would require many trips across the border over a few years. It occurred to me that I may have to pay duty on a tattoo! Since it will be large and I will be doing multi-day sessions, it will exceed the $200 limit for purchases in a 48 hour period. I know one answer is “don’t declare it.” That would be fine if it was a one shot visit for a tattoo. However I will be making regular trips across the border for a couple of years (which I understand is a red flag in itself), and I will have to come up with a credible answer to “what was your reason for being in Canada?” Stating that I am going to Toronto as a tourist will look flimsy if i go every three months like clockwork. I’m concerned that after a few trips they may flag me and pull me aside and really quiz me. I’m not a good liar, and if they really press me it will be hard to account for my two days without saying that I spent my time getting tattooed. I could just bite the bullet and declare the tattoo, and pay the duty, but then that opens the door to proving the cost (tattoo artists don’t give receipts), and possibly identifying the artist that didn’t provide a receipt, and risking getting them in trouble. Does anyone here have any experience on this that they can share?

My wife has tattoos, and at this point has more than I do. But to tell the truth, she is not “into” tattoos in the same way that I am. It is something that she did in the past, reached a point where she was satisfied, and stopped. She has no regrets, but I think it is sort of a “been there, done that” thing for her, in a good way. I’m going to be flying cross-country multiple times for long sessions for my back piece. I told her that I hoped she would go with me. I had hoped that she would sit by my side for long sessions and support me, But she said that she might go with me on one or two trips, because she could shop all day. Well, to each his/her own! We talked about it and she said that she wanted to support me, but she said that if we were going to spend money to fly to an interesting distant place, sitting there for 6 hours watching me get tattooed, with nothing else to do except perhaps read a book was not her idea of fun. When she puts it in those terms, I get that! For me, getting the tattoo is the sole reason for the trip, and that is enough for me. But it’s not fair to her to expect her to just sit there.

@viezure: I'm an architect. We have corporate and institutional clients who are often quite traditional on such things, especially for someone my age, who should "know better" ;-) I value my job, am committed to it, and enjoy it too, and my personal point of view is that I don't want to do anything to make clients uncomfortable. That may sound a little like "sucking up," but business is business. Because of those clients I can feed my family and pay the mortgage...and get tattooed! On the other hand we have some clients who I know would not care, and we currently have one tattooed client. But I prefer to to keep business and personal stuff separate but in the proper balance, which had been my big hang up for years.

Interesting comment, @KBeee. As a male, it is impossible for me to fully understand what it is like to to be a woman and live with society’s expectations of beauty for women. Society and media have certainly browbeaten women about conforming to an ideal of appearance. Women getting tattooed visibly challenges that, which is good. Kudos for you! But I suspect that it is tough sometimes. It is not quite the same for me as a man because we aren't held to the same "beauty" expectations. I have been fascinated by tattoos since the 1970s (I’m in my sixties, got a tattoo at twenty, waited until now to get something large). I liked them, wanted them, thought they look great on everyone, male and female, and have viewed them positively myself, for decades before the tattooing reached today's popularity. But I, too, realize I am carrying subconscious imprints. In my case, they are the messages that I grew up with about how tattoos are not for “good people” like me. I don’t believe that myself, but I must admit that it is in the back of my mind, and somewhere inside my brain I think other people believe that and I will be judged by them. I think that has been part of why I have struggled to decide to go ahead with my large project (see my other post in this thread)

Bumping this topic - interesting reading! I’ve only got one small tattoo from 40-odd years ago, but I’m planning a back piece. Even though I haven’t started the actual tattoo yet, I have already learned things as I’ve made my decision and started planning. I’m learning that tattooing is a process and that for me most important part of the process is not in the studio, it is in the brain. It took me over 30 years to decide to get my second tattoo. Even though I wanted one, I didn’t think it fit my professional image, and I was afraid of being judged negatively by friends and colleagues. I waffled between “should I or shouldn’t I?” for decades. Over time my desire to get a tattoo grew stronger and stronger. And to complicate matters, my interest evolved from “getting a tattoo” into “getting a very large tattoo.” I couldn’t understand why I was unable to make a decision. I spent a lot of time analyzing it and ended up writing down the whole history of my interest in tattooing, as far back as far as I could remember — every incident, what I saw, what my thoughts were along the way, and what was going on in my life, my feelings of conflict— everything I could think of (condensed, but still fairly long version here). Ultimately that led me to the realization that my indecision was not really about whether or not to get a tattoo, but was really an expression of my inability to be the person that I wanted to be in life. I came to the realization that I had lived my whole life trying to fit into an image of what I perceived that others and my profession wanted me should be, while completely burying what I wanted to be. I realized that I had unwittingly gradually reprogrammed myself to believe that by “fitting in” I would become the “right kind of person.” That may have been one of the most important things I learned about myself in my 60-odd years on the planet. Once I acepted that, it was easy to decide to go ahead with my tattoo project, but more importantly It helped me start to live my life more as I wanted, and move toward a better balance between the professional me and the private me. It was only through trying to decide to get a large tattoo that I was able to find that out about myself. I’m not sure if I could have gotten to that realization any other way. I think that for me it took a confrontation with a desire to do something that in my world was really radical, extreme, and beyond the norm (getting a huge tattoo) to jolt me into exploring and learning something deep in me.