More than a decade ago, Los Angeles County adopted a rating system for restaurants in which health inspectors, after finishing their inspection, made their important decision as to what letter to hand out.  The letters A, B and C quickly became the norm, with A being the best and C being the worst.  Whatever letter the inspected restaurant was given was determined by calculating the manner in which the restaurant lived up to health and sanitation regulations in their kitchens.  Naturally there are standards - that is, any restaurant that fails its health inspection isn’t simply given a C and told to shape up.  C is the bottom of the barrel in terms of health department score, but it’s still passable in terms of staying in business.  Regardless, if you had the choice to eat your next meal at one of three restaurants, one with an A displayed in their front window, one with a B and one with a C, which one would you choose?  I sure as hell know which one I would choose.

Though this system might seem overly strict to some, the vast majority of LA County residents like it a lot.  It’s also gained in popularity over on the east coast, where New York City restaurants began adopting it this past July.

Now then, tattoos may seem to be on a completely different level than food and restaurants, but when you really think about it, they aren’t so different at all.  No matter which way you slice it, at the heart of either issue the most important thing is a sanitary environment in which clean preparation and execution are performed.  Health, safety and quality are at the forefront of what matters to a costumer as well as what should definitely matter to an artist.  This being the case, the state of Georgia’s Columbia County is currently considering a policy in which a grading system that is more or less based on the LA County and NYC restaurant models is used.

The idea is causing a great deal of debate amongst health officials and tattoo artists alike.  Some tattoo artists embrace it wholeheartedly, while others complain that it will simply create more paperwork.  If you ask me - and no one did, but when has that ever stopped me? - this is an excellent idea.  Like it or not, the tattoo industry, just like any other industry, is about keeping up.  If a tattoo studio or an artist can’t put forth the effort and prove the quality of their establishment when it counts, then I don’t feel sorry for them.  A rating system is something that should be implemented everywhere for all tattoo studios.  I mean, think about how much easier it makes it for first time tattoo costumers, who may not know much about tattoos but want to go somewhere that offers quality work and professional care.  It’s a great concept and one that I really hope to see a lot of in the future.

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Temporary tattoos just aren’t interesting.  No matter how good the artwork is, the fact will always remain that it’s temporary and that alone just leaves a lot to be desired.  But uh…well, I just discovered a temporary tattoo that most likely will change the disinterested opinion that a lot of people have toward temporary tattoos.

They’re called “Vatoos”, although some bloggers out there are pushing for that name to be changed to “Twattoos”.  If you don’t know what the hell either one of those names is supposed to refer to, here you go: “Vatoos” or “Twattoos” (if you prefer) are temporary vaginal tattoos.  Apparently this trend is growing and everything from basic small designs to glow in the dark surprises are being air brushed on to the nether regions of hordes of temporary tattoo hungry women.

Hmmm…after watching this video from the Completely Bare spa in New York City, I’m of the opinion that the skill level involved in applying these things needs to improve a great deal.  However, that’s probably nitpicking on my part as I can’t really see many guys (or girls) complaining when they make the discovery that their partner is sporting some airbrushed art (which may or may not glow in the dark) down under.

At $115 (which includes the necessary bikini wax), I kind of wonder why you need to go to a spa like Completely Bare to have the process done.  I mean, can’t you just head over to Toys R Us and pick up a package of temporary tattoos for six bucks or whatever?  Well, whatever the case, I have to admit that the concept of vaginal tattoos is just too much fun to ignore.  If the ladies are liking it, then I say have at it and have fun.  Though I do admit that I prefer the name “Twattoo” over “Vatoo”.

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This past weekend was a big one in Phoenix, Arizona as the 2010 Hell City Tattoo Fest took place.  If you’re not familiar with the Hell City Tattoo Fest, then you most likely don’t pay much attention to tattoo conventions/festivals, because Hell City is one of the biggest ones currently going.  Music, tattoos, competitions, up and coming tattoo artists as well as current tattoo legends, vendors, seminars and judging by this photo, some dude in a red, white and blue spandex suit who can fold himself into strange yet intriguing positions.  And that’s only a fraction of everything that goes on at the Hell City Tattoo Fest.  It’s all pretty spectacular, alright.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t lucky enough to be in attendance at either the Columbus, Ohio Hell City Tattoo Fest or this past weekend’s Phoenix Tattoo Fest, but digging around on the internet and finding pictures, video and news about the entire event is kind of like being there, right?  Yeah…I know, it’s a very sad attempt on my part.  I plan to get there one day, but this just wasn’t my year.

At any rate, check out this article for a bit of a taste of the sort of tattoo competitions that went on during the Pheonix Hell City Fest.  There were some outstanding tattoos on display as well as some not so outstanding tattoos from the looks of things, which of course is to be expected any time something as massive as the Hell City Tattoo Fest kicks off.

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Italy is a very beautiful country, so it makes sense that it would also be home to a tattoo artist who does very beautiful work.  Miss Arianna makes her home on Italy’s Adriatic Coast at Skinwear Tattoo in the city of Rimini.  For more than two years, Arianna went the traditional route of paying her dues and learning the ways of the tattooist through an apprenticeship.  To her, the apprenticeship is a vital part of a tattoo artist learning to find their way as a serious artist.

It’s this respect for tradition and understanding of its importance that underscores Miss Arianna’s tattoo work, yet at the same time the need to modernize and to move forward with her own twist on the classic American tattoo makes her work fresh and intriguing.

“The style I love to perform is my personal version of the traditional.  I like it because it’s similar to me: it’s direct, clear and solid.  It has a unique strength and balance.  I deeply admire big names such as Sailor Jerry, Bert Grimm, Percy Waters, etc, but I think it’s so limiting to use their flash and only employ the colours of that period.  I don’t like to reshape their flash and put my name on it, as though they were my drawings.  I respect those who do it, but I think that working out my own drawings is definitely more interesting, perceiving what my customer wants, and then perform it in my personal traditional style: solid line, tonnes of black, and full colours.”

- Miss Arianna, Skin Deep Magazine, September 2010

The importance of tattoo artists who want to move forward and yet at the same time maintain links and a strong respect for the past is undeniably important.  After all, trends come and go, but there is never a substitute for hard work and originality.  Miss Arianna proves that.

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Tattoos have been accused in some instances of being about personal vanity.  I personally don’t agree with that sort of assessment.  I mean, after all, this is an art form that is so diverse and ultimately so personal that it kind of transcends any attempt at pigeonholing it.  No one ever knows for certain why a person gets the tattoo that they get without outright asking that person their reasons for doing so.

There’s also a somewhat blurred line in some respects as to what exactly qualifies as a tattoo.  Take permanent makeup, for example.  Not a tattoo in the traditional sense, yet it still remains on the body for anywhere from 2-5 years before fading.  Because the makeup does disappear after time and does not remain absolutely permanent like a tattoo puts it on a different level of classification.  In England, anyone under the age of 18 can get permanent makeup put on and that is where a new controversy has started.

Sophie Watson is a 14-year-old girl whose parents have recently allowed her to have her eyebrows, lips and eyes done with permanent makeup.  Watson regularly takes place in beauty pageants and says that she likes having the permanent makeup done because now she doesn’t “need to bother with it every morning”.  The issue has caused people to question what sort of values that this is imparting on a 14-year-old girl, but even beyond that it seems to me that 14 is far too young to be tattooed with anything.

This is a particular scenario in which tattooing is about personal vanity.  If a 14-year-old boy has to wait until he’s 18 (or in some places, older than 16) to have a tattoo done because there is a definite lack of maturity toward the commitment that a tattoo involves, then why should a 14-year-old girl be permitted to be tattooed with makeup, which in some ways is a far more mature commitment than a basic tattoo?  If there isn’t a basic respect for tattoos from an early age - whether they be makeup or traditional - then what’s the point in having laws that dictate when a child can or can’t have a tattoo?  For her part, Sophie Watson already has two very real and very illegal tattoos on her body.  Does this disregard for the law and for the responsibility related to being tattooed have anything to do with the conflicting laws between permanent makeup and tattoos?  Hard to say, but I think that they both should at least be on the same terms with regards to a legal age.

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I try to cover a lot of different angles on the tattoo blog.  If it’s about tattoo and it’s something that I haven’t really seen a lot of before, I tend to automatically gravitate towards it.  One of the easiest and most plentiful topics out there in relation to tattoo is the whole Hollywood angle.  You can barely run a quick search on the topic of tattoos on Google without page after page of gossip about Hollywood stars and their brand new tattoos.  I guess I’ve never really focused a lot of energy on reporting on stuff like this because I’ve never really given a crap if Brad Pitt got a new tattoo or not.

But today I found a brief blog post on the UK Guardian news site.  On it the author listed the various movies which contain tattooed characters.  When you really get down to it, over the years there have been a lot of characters in film with tattoos.  At any rate, the article makes a good point as it talks about tattoos in film:

“Most of us will know someone with a tattoo, even if they’re not willing to show it. Inking has definitely become a part of the mainstream, but in cinema it remains something of a novelty. A lot of film characters have become like politicians; make them as bland as possible so as not to offend anyone. Where are the tattooed romantic leads?”

“Whatever the reason, you can generally pigeonhole film characters with tattoos into psychos, gangsters and Angelina Jolie. But at least one thing is certain: these characters always have interesting pasts …”

I can’t help but agree with all of this - why are tattooed people only used as the trouble makers in film? Even if I try really hard to think of a film in which a tattooed character isn’t a criminal or psychopath, all I can really come up with is Adam Goldberg in the 2007 film 2 Days in Paris.  Goldberg plays the American boyfriend of a French woman visiting her parents in Paris.  The fact that I can only recall one film with a positive (more or less) role for a tattooed character is pretty lame - and I watch a lot of films.

Well it might be a while before Hollywood decides to give us a good hearted tattooed character, so I guess that until they do, we’ll just have to enjoy watching the tattooed psychopaths and criminals cause trouble on screen.

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Throughout the United States, there is certainly no shortage of tattoo shops.  Like a lot of other countries however, the amount of tattoo studios to choose from changes drastically depending on the city that you find yourself in.  Some cities are very ink friendly, with a large population of tattooed people and a steady supply of talented tattooists.  Others, not so much.  I’ve written a great deal of stuff on the Tattoo Blog about various tattooists in tattoo hot spots like Austin, Texas and pretty much the entire state of California - to name a few.  But it wasn’t until today that I discovered a nice little study which lists the top ten most tattoo-friendly cities in the United States.

So exactly what sort of criteria must a city meet to make this little top ten list?  Well, according to The Today Show.com:

“To figure out which U.S. cities were the most tattoo-friendly, we perused chat forums and looked up every state in several public directories, including Yellow Pages, Google listings, Tattoo Yellow Pages and AAA Tattoo Directory, to find those with the most listed tattoo and permanent makeup shops. Then we looked up which cities in those states had the most shops listed per capita with populations based on latest U.S. Census numbers. We also took into consideration the city’s demographics and whether or not it hosted tattoo conventions, remembering that not all tattoo parlors were listed in the directories.”

Though Austin had been my initial guess as to what US city is the most tattoo-friendly city out there, I wasn’t surprised to see that it was Miami Beach, Florida that took the number one spot.  Boasting about 24 tattoo shops per 100,000 people, plenty of beaches and the opportunity for skin to be exposed on a regular basis, Miami Beach is the sort of place that just seems made for tattoo enthusiasts.  It was also the home of the Miami Ink reality television series and the skill level of the tattooists on that show was clearly impressive.  Los Angeles, and Honolulu, two other sun-soaked destinations, ranked 10th and 8th respectively, while good ol’ Austin, Texas came in at 6th.  What I was genuinely surprised about however, was that New York City did not make the cut.  I realize that this isn’t exactly dense scientific research here, but I would have thought that a city like New York with such a vibrant tattoo scene, would have at least cracked the top ten.

Check out the complete list of the top ten most tattoo-friendly cities in America, here.

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