July 9 2021 - Almost Done Tattooing

 

What else should we look at with the topic of tattoos.  I wonder how tattoos have become so popular in our lifetime. Itturns out that it was the electric tattoo machine, invented in 1891, a modification of Thomas Edison's electric pen. This brought tattooing into American culture.  Before that, tattooing was painful.  Before that it was popular amongst sailors and circus performers.   By 1936, 1 in 10 Americans had a tattoo. This seems such a high number.  The 1960s and 1970s were the time that tattoos went mainstream.  Janis Joplin is famous for her tattoo.  It is known as a milestone. It is claimed tat tattoos have "undergone dramatic redefinition" and shifted from a form of deviance to an acceptable form of expression.  Does this make tattoos 'normal' today?  I guess so if we consider 30 percentage of the US population has one.  Do they remain in the deviant/deviation space?  I ask that as there are countless articles on creepiest, weirdest and strangest tattoos.  An example is teeth tattoos. They are placed on crowns which are then put in the client's mouth.  And there are DNA tattoos. That's a DNA extraction process that allows you to turn your relatives or pets, dead or alive, into tattoo ink. The sales lady at the wine store at Harvest Barn in St. Catharines has a tattoo dedicated to her son that contains her son's ashes.  She is very talkative about this tribute and happy to show you anytime.  Is there a most famous tattoo in the world?  There are no famous tattoos listed.  You can find answers for things like: Which celebrity has the best tattoo? Which celebrity has a lot of tattoos? Which movie starts have tattoos? You get the trend. What about: Who has the most tattoos? That would be Lucky Diamon Rich (Gregory Paul McLaren) age 49, a tattoo artist/performance artist.  He holds the Guinness Record.  "He began by having a full collection of colourful designs from around the world tattooed over his entire body. But not content with stopping there, Lucky next opted for a 100% covering of black ink, including eyelids, the delicate skin between the toes, down into the ears, and even his gums. He is now being tattooed with white designs on top of the black, and coloured designs on top of the white! From the pictures, is he missing a tooth in the front or is it tattooed black?  It is creepy. See him HERE.   A heart shape is such a strong image to us.  The originating abstract image was soap suds in the car wash.  It was Flaming pear's Flexifly that created the patterns.  All seem to match with the tattoo theme of the day.

Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

July 8 2021 - Looking for the Oldest Stuff

 

Continuing on the theme of old, I wonder what the oldest stuff is.  What do we prize and keep? There's a website named oldest.org and it tracks "oldest" things. There are simple things like  the 9 oldest wood schoolhouses, lighthouses  banks, buildings, bridges, and so on. Little did I think that the oldest tattoos would be significant. Ethnographic and historical texts reveal that tattooing has been practiced by just about every human culture in historic times. The ancient Greeks used tattoos from the 5th century on to communicate among spies; later, the Romans marked criminals and slaves with tattoos. Other cultures had sacred messages and symbols. Finding the oldest tattoos entails finding mummies. The oldest?  Ötzi the Iceman from 3400 BCE had tattoos - 61 in 19 groups of black lines. The locations of many of the markings are consistent with traditional Chinese acupuncture points, specifically those that are used to treat back pain and stomach upset. What is intriguing is that Ötzi lived roughly 2,000 years before the oldest generally accepted evidence of acupuncture, and well west of its purported origins in China. X-rays revealed that Ötzi had arthritis in his hip joint, knees, ankles and spine; forensic analysis discovered evidence of whipworm eggs - known to cause severe abdominal pain - in Ötzi’s stomach. It is, therefore, possible that Ötzi’s tattoos did in fact play a therapeutic role, and that acupuncture has a slightly more complicated history than previously believed. Now that is intriguing. It tells us that there is much to learn from old things, antique things and vintage things.  There's a trend to get rid of old stuff these days - things we have just finished using.  It has led to the waning appreciation of antiques and vintage.   That leaves us with National Old Stuff Day. - March 2nd. It is a day to celebrate old things and get rid of old things.  The two live side by side.  Certainly steam locomotives and railroad layouts represent old stuff from a previous time.  I wonder if I would find any tattoos on the figures.  I've never considered looking or asking.  It would be remarkable, wouldn't it.

Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Why are Tattoos so Popular?

I ask the question from the point of view of motivation and not history.  Why are people getting tattooed so much today?  I stood in line at the local coffee shop and the young man ahead of me had tattoos on his head, down his neck, and on his arms.   The articles tell me that millennials appear to be obsessed with tattoos.  The United States Navy has had to change its body art policies.  In 2010 about 40 per cent of millennials had at least one tattoo.  In 2017 one in five Canadians had a tattoo. That explains the coffee shop line up.  There were 4 people ahead of me. It doesn't explain the waterfall effect of the tattoos, though.  They seemed to flower from him more like lava than a refreshing spring. The entrance of tattoos into mainstream media shows and on mainstream celebrities has speeded the significant shift towards acceptance.  The theory goes that tattoos are 'an expression of oneself' and they stand for the entirety of that identity.  And when I ask a person about their tattoo, they describe  what the tattoo expresses of themselves.  Tattoos aren't 'accepted'.  They are 'embraced'. The alignment of person with workplace norms is the only remaining question.  The suitability of tattoos is now a past discussion.  The negative views are prevalent for healthcare professionals, police officers, lawyers, financial institutions, and school teachers.  But that's just lead and lag timing question.  When will I see a doctor with a tattoo on a wrist?  That's a prediction to make. I didn't watch the Oscars last night. They have drifted into the past for me - it is a long time ago when they were fun and important - when Bob Hope and Johnny Carson  were the hosts in the golden age of television and movies. I think there should be an article on this topic:  What do the Olympics and Oscars have in common?  That's because the headlines on the Oscars seem to point to the similarities:   Do the Oscars Even Matter Anymore?   The Uncomfortable Truth About the Oscar If the Oscars No Longer Care About the Public, Why Should the Public... The Oscars' Dirty Secret:  Corruption, Bribery, Mafia-style Hit Job Oscar Films:  75 years of bribes, lies and overkill Oscars:  were you always so political? Oscar Record Low Audience But there is a brilliant moment at the Oscars 2019 -  Billy Porter's outfit - it has been named a gown-cedo. He wore an outfit with a tuxedo on top and a black floor length ball gown skirt on the bottom.  It is remarkable.   Toronto Island garden images today.