Wow, I haven't been on here in a minute. There have been a lot of transitions going on here at the shop, and I've not been thinking too much about regaling the world with sordid tales of tattoo terror. But have one that's been brewing for a while, I think I'm ready to spill.
Nicole Richie, for those of you fortunate enough to be unaware, has a tattoo of a rosary around her ankle. The cross dangles down onto the top of her foot. She's had it for a while, and as of late I've been replicating this same tattoo like mad. Now, let me start by saying this; I have no moral objections to what people want to tattoo on themselves. What I mean, is I don't object to the point that I refuse to do the tattoo. You want your main squeeze's name on you? Fine. Gang symbol? Suit yourself. Swastika? No prob. So I don't get uppity about religious tattoos, I rather like most of the designs.
I was raised a very strict Catholic, I no longer practice, but from the years of church and school I have a very sound knowledge of the symbolism, stories and what have you. Now, putting a rosary around your neck like a necklace would have gotten you cracked on the head with a ruler by a vicious nun. I can only imagine what they might have done if they had seen one of us winding it around our ankle. So, purely out of habit, I cringe a little at the notion of tattooing a rosary around an ankle, but I'll still do it.
What concerns me, however, is the fact that they don't know what it is or what it's for, they want it becuase someone famous has it.The first time I was ever called upon to do such a tattoo, I was anxious as I was drawing the stencil, making sure I had the proper amount of beads, trying to remember the Mysteries and the order that they come in. And then I had a thought: "It's 1 am on a Sunday. This woman is crocked out of her mind. She's putting it on her foot. I doubt she even has any idea how many beads there are supposed to be." And then I proceeded to do the tattoo with little more thought.
I have repeated this same scenario many times, last night's episode really ruffled me. A young girl came in looking for the Nicole Richie tattoo, and I dutifully pulled out the stencil. She looked at it, pointed to the center and said, "I don't like that, could I have it without that? I don't know if it means something..." Yes, it did, and I explained it to her, that it was one of the few things that separated a rosary from a string of beads. She said, "Oh, well, leave it in, I guess."
There are five beads above the crucifix, and I mean a crucifix, not a cross, there is a difference. A crucifix has Jesus nailed to it. The Nicole Richie tattoo only has a cross on it, so the whole thing is blasphemous from the beginning. She asked if I could make that part shorter, less beads on it. I explained why there were so many beads. "Oh," She replied. "Just leave it, I guess. I just want it to look sexy and cute." Sexy and cute? Would you do a Jewish Menorah, but make it have only six candles so it looked sexy and cute? I was completely baffled by all this. "Is nothing sacred?" I found myself thinking. That old reverence will never leave me, I guess.
So, I did the tattoo and she was happy as a clam and that was that. She scuffed out of here and I felt the sting of the imaginary ruler on my knuckles and Sister Anne-Lucille's hoarse invectives echoing in my ears. Sometimes I wonder if there really is a hell like they told us back then. And if there is, and if I'm not already damned to go there on account of the transgressions of my youth, would doing tattoos like that Nicole Richie mess put me on the guest list? I bet if I am, my punishment is going to be having to tattoo perfect, concentric circles on fat girls' stomachs for an eternity. All you other tattooers know how that would be.
