Wear Your Art on Your Sleeve

Proper off of Ball State College’s campus sits a small strip of retailers. Whenever you scan the shops on this strip, generally referred to by college students as “The Village,” there are bookstores, bars, and pizza joints. However, above a café, lies a hidden gem: Physique Language Tattoo. The store, which opened in 2015, provides tattoos and physique piercings.

Even with COVID-19 restrictions in place, the store feels welcoming with vibrant music and creative décor. The area is split into sections, on the fitting are three models partitioned off for tattoo artists to have their very own workspace, and throughout the room is a spot for the only physique piercer.

Each Nikki Skowronek, the store’s physique piercer, and Cody Blackford, the lead tattoo artist, started their careers right here.

Nikki and Cody got here to Ball State with out plans of turning into a tattoo artist or a piercing technician. Nikki has a bachelor’s diploma in inventive writing and French and Cody has a grasp’s diploma in expertise training. Each of them did their apprenticeships whereas they have been ending their levels by means of Ball State after having gotten into the trade throughout their school years in Muncie. 

Throughout Nikki’s freshman 12 months at Ball State, she got here to Physique Language Tattoo and acquired her first piercing within the very sales space she now calls her personal.

“All of my piercings aside from my lobes have been finished right here… I’m like a strolling commercial for this place, however I’m not mad about it,” Nikki says about her assortment of piercings and tattoos.

Cody additionally accomplished his internship by means of Physique Language Tattoo whereas attending Ball State College. 

“For a 12 months there, I used to be truly doing 100-hour weeks or so as a result of I used to be taking courses, instructing courses, doing analysis with a professor, and I used to be tattooing full time,” he says. 

After surviving 2020, a 12 months riddled with challenges as a result of pandemic, Physique Language Tattoo was capable of thrive. Each side of the enterprise, tattooing and physique piercing, have been booked up as soon as the store reopened. 

“Folks have been itching to get in and get one thing finished,” Nikki says.

Cody agrees that he has by no means seen the store busier. 

“I do not know what made tattooing extra widespread. I want I knew what it was so we might do extra of it. I really like that tattooing is widespread…tattooing gaining popularity and accepted can be superior,” he says.

In line with a 2015 Harris Poll, in 2003 solely 16% of all adults had a tattoo, whereas in 2015 it had elevated to almost 30%.

 The need for tattoos should not the one a part of the tattooing trade that’s rising. Statistics calculated by IBISWorld present that the market dimension for the tattoo artist trade is predicted to develop 6.6% within the upcoming 12 months, which exceeds the three.1% common development the trade has seen between 2016 to 2021.

This improve might be brought on partially by the rise in acceptance of tattoos and elimination of the stigmas they as soon as held. Within the Harris Ballot, when requested to match these with tattoos to these with out, 66% of adults voted that it made no distinction to their notion of how respectable the person is.

Assistant professor of counseling at Edinboro College Everett Painter says there’s additionally a stigma in tattoo analysis. In line with Painter, early analysis into tattoos was introduced as destructive as a result of being centered round linking it to deviance. 

“We’ve come from a spot the place it’s considered even in analysis literature as one thing destructive to the place we’re in the present day the place there’s a lot that’s constructive round tattoos,” says Painter.

Having grown up in a conservative family, Nikki has needed to conquer her personal worry of being perceived otherwise by these round her. Although she was keen to forfeit her nostril piercings throughout footage for her sister’s marriage ceremony, she has taken the stance that these round her should overcome their very own prejudices on the subject of her freedom to precise herself by means of piercings and tattoos.

“My grandma admitted to me final December that she appreciated all of my tattoos and piercings. So, it’s child steps and may take a bit of bit. Don’t be discouraged. It’s your physique,” she says. 

In line with a 2019 examine performed by Ipsos, three in 10 People have no less than one tattoo, which is a rise of 9% since 2012. 

Cody is anxious that typically those that are available to get tattoos don’t at all times take into consideration the permanence of it. He worries that, like sorts of quick style, individuals are available and get tattoos of what’s fashionable and low cost and don’t understand that in a pair months’ time, it’s going to now not be related.

This actual idea could also be why having phantasm tattoos has made it to the runway on a couple of events. One being when Scott Campbell, a tattoo artist, was featured within the Louis Vuitton Spring 2011 menswear collection the place he designed purses and gave the fashions non permanent tattoos to put on whereas on the runway.

“You need that tattoo to look nearly as good as it might so long as you possibly can. You need it to be one thing that’s going to be considerably timeless,” says Cody.

To place it in perspective, Cody compares a tattoo to a shirt. Making a fast choice to purchase a shirt that may final a couple of years mustn’t weigh the identical as deciding to get a tattoo that may final the remainder of your life. 

Fast choice tattoos should not the one ones individuals get, although. Painter says that there are a selection of causes that people get tattoos equivalent to coming-of-age to memorials and all of it will depend on the individual.

“It’s a person factor,” says Painter. “You need to discuss to the person to actually discern what it’s about [a tattoo] that appeals to them.”

Painter says that for people which have trauma that’s straight associated to the physique, tattoos can be utilized to reclaim the physique. 

“It may be about revealing their inside selves to different individuals, but additionally controlling how and once they try this,” he says. 

Cody advises to do a number of analysis earlier than deciding on getting tattoos. Some artists have explicit types, and Cody cautions in opposition to asking an artist to stray from that. His high ideas for getting tattooed embrace consuming loads of water, discovering references, and setting a price range. 

“Some individuals get tattoos that imply loads to them, some get issues that they simply assume are cool, however they at all times act as reminders of the place we’re in life,” Cody says.