A visitor to the 17th International Tattoo Convention in Berlin in 2007
This guy is just so different from today’s trendies; he still looks like he belongs to an era when tattoos went to the gutsy, the outlaws, the fringe dwellers, the rebels, the people living in the darker corners of society. Tattoos were tribal then and tattooing was an artform; people would put a lot of thought in the design of their body art – like the guy above. And I could imagine people’s tattoos had meaning for them and a lot of them might have been quite unique as well.
Quite different from today where tattoos have become a major fashion fad, with designs ripped off celebrity magazines (see links below) and chosen according to current tattoo design trends; even tongue tattoos are beginning to be considered by the mainstream. Given the fashion nature though of tattoos I wonder what people will do when their tattoo does not represent the latest trend anymore – not as easy to change as last year’s clothes …
As for some background on tattoos, people’s journeys around and with them, the cultures, meanings and history of tattoos (including their celebrity cult status), etc. it’s worth checking out Vanishing Tattoo.
