Tattoo shop inks for breast cancer walk

By: Annie Goodman

Sacred Art Tattoo is offering tattoos at a slashed price in order to raise funds for the San Francisco Breast Cancer Walk in October.

From now until August 31, the tattoo shop is offering $20 pink-ribbon tattoos to anybody in an effort to raise money for the three-day, 60-mile walk.

The walk is a fundraiser event to raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, and for the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund. It will take place in 15 major cities across the U.S. from July through November.

The first four people from Chico State who contact Larry Bassow, the program coordinator for Greek Life, will have their tattoos paid for, he said. This includes students, faculty and staff.

"I'm in this thing for $100," said Bassow, who plans on getting tatted with the pink ribbon sometime this summer. "If they want to get the tattoo for breast cancer, I'll buy theirs. I'll go there with them and pay for it."

Chico State alumni Juan Ortega, a tattoo artist at Sacred Art Tattoo, said that in order to enter into the three-day walk, which is Oct. 2 through 4, participant teams must raise $2,200. Ortega is part of a team that is hoping to raise enough funds to participate in the walk, and he's looking for more team members to join his effort.

On St. Patrick's Day, Sacred Art Tattoo needled $20 shamrock tattoos into more than 100 paying customers - totaling more than $2,000, Ortega said.

"I was figuring, 'Well shoot, if we can get some people to come in and get $20 ribbons and put all the proceeds towards the breast cancer fund, that would be awesome,'" he said.

The tattoo will be a small, pink, standard ribbon, said David Singletary, owner of Sacred Art Tattoo.

"When 9/11 happened, we did the same kind of ribbons, but it was like an American flag, and all the money went towards the charity for that," Singletary said. "I think we raised like $1,100 for that."

It's important that Chico State does something on its campus that brings breast cancer awareness to people and looks to raise funds for people suffering from the disease, said Bassow, who is developing a breast cancer awareness effort to be launched in the spring of 2010.

Bassow plans for the effort to build on the Up 'til Dawn foundation of raising cancer awareness, he said.

"A lot of students are affected by breast cancer on our campus," Bassow said. "A friend of mine, who I went to high school with, who also came to Chico for college - she's almost 42 and she just got diagnosed with breast cancer."

Bassow's friend, Kelly Rosenheim, 41, was diagnosed with breast cancer five weeks ago. After having a partial mastectomy and breast reconstruction only two weeks after she learned of the diagnosis, the mother of 3-year-old twins is now recovering and will see her oncologist Thursday to find out what treatment plans doctors decide on.

"I feel good," Rosenheim said. "It's definitely sore. It's very intrusive."

Bassow contacted the 1990 graduate as soon as he learned about the tattoo fundraiser, and Rosenheim was excited to join her old friend in the effort, despite never considering getting a tattoo in the past, she said.

"Now I feel like, once all is said and done and I've healed and I'm feeling healthy, that I would get a tattoo and have people know that it's something to look for, and be aware of," Rosenheim said.

By Shannon T. Curley

Throughout American history, sailors have branded themselves and one another with permanent "markings" commemorating battles or comrades or the names of women waiting back at home.

Marking that history, the Independence Seaport Museum has opened "Skin & Bones: Tattoos in the Life of the American Sailor," with the tagline: "If you have a tattoo, thank a sailor."

"The whole idea behind the show is these guys are getting tattooed not because they are pretty, but because they felt strongly" about what they were honoring, said Craig Bruns, the show's curator. "You are marking your body and showing your intentions."

Citing Charles Darwin, the show points out that every culture on Earth has developed a method of tattooing itself. However, the Western style of tattoos that led to modern American tattooing came primarily from Europe. Early American sailors learned to tattoo from their British counterparts.

At the exhibition premiere Thursday night, women in elegant cocktail dresses and men in suits mingled with sailors in uniform and young artists in ripped jeans and sneakers. They wandered through the exhibition gallery, which starts pre-1700s and goes on to feature a lifesize rendering of an actual 18th-century American sailor complete with tattoos, and marveled at pieces of "flash," or the drawings of possible tattoo designs from hundreds of years ago.

Many of the guests prominently displayed intricate tattoos on their arms, neck, calves, or through the open backs of their cocktail dresses. One guest made a point of wearing flip-flops to display the tattoos on the tops of his feet.

The two tattoos on the feet of U.S. Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Richard Sambenedetto Jr. - of a pig and a rooster - have become the symbol of the "Skin & Bones" exhibit. They are part of an old sailor superstition that those two tattoos on the feet will prevent a sailor from drowning.

According to Sambenedetto, there are two different explanations for how this superstition took root. The first is that, because the animals were transported across water in wooden crates, if something should happen to the ship the crates would always float. The second is that because neither pigs nor roosters can swim, they will take the most direct route to land.

"At sea you only have each other," Sambenedetto said. "Superstition is just something to have in your back pocket. Everybody has a religion at sea. This is just part of it."

Sambenedetto, who is covered on most of his body with tattoos, says that he now counsels younger sailors who are considering getting tattoos. He himself will probably not get any more until after he retires because of restrictions the Coast Guard imposed several years ago on where its sailors can have visible tattoos and how much of their bodies can be covered.

When Sambenedetto does retire, he says he will need to add four units to his tattoo showing the units he served with over the years - a symbol of where he has been and what he has accomplished.

Like many of the people at the "Skin & Bones" opening, Anabelle Rodriguez, a Philadelphia-based artist and graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, can trace her own love of tattoos back to a sailor.

"My nana's husband was a sailor and he had tattoos. I have loved tattoos since I was little. This is a very impressive show. I'm very happy," said Rodriguez, whose tattooed armband features cherry blossoms, clouds, water, and wind, which, she said, in the Japanese tradition signifies the shortness of life. In her case, though, it means carpe diem: "live it up."

Some guests stopped by a video-simulation tattoo station that "draws" an image on the skin. They could choose among a sailor's knotted rope, an anchor, and a tattoo that said "Mom," drawn while the electronic voice of a tattoo artist made conversation and a humming sound created the atmosphere of an authentic tattoo parlor.

Melissa Hough, a retired museum curator, chose the anchor because, as the automated voice explained, it is one of the most popular first tattoos sailors get. Hough said she had formerly been put off by tattoos, but after going through the exhibition, she had a different perspective.

"It's a lot of fun. Who would guess? It's kind of an unusual subject," said Hough. And while it may not have made her want to run out and get a tattoo, she had gained a new appreciation of tattoos. "I definitely see it as an art form now."

 

YOU MAY PLACE YOUR NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS IN A MESSAGE TO THIS PAGE OR JUST PUT IT IN A COMMENT TO THIS BLOG. YOUR NAME WILL BE ADDED TO OUR DATABASE OF ONGOING SIGNATORS.
EXAMPLE:
I SIGN THE PETITION
KELLI STOHL   kelkeltat2d@whatever.co
 
To: The South Carolina General Assembly and Governor Mark Sanford,
To the State Representatives of the South Carolina General Assembly and Governor Mark Sanford,
We, the Citizens of South Carolina and Other States of Our Great United States of America,
Do hereby notify you of our requirement that you amend CHAPTER 34 Tattooing Section 44-34-10 to respect and adhere to United States Constitutional Law.
CHAPTER 34 Tattooing Section 44-34-10 is in clear violation in several areas;
1) " A tattoo artist must verify by means of a picture identification that a recipient is at least twenty-one years of age or, if the person is at least eighteen years of age, has parental consent."
Our Constitution emancipates its citizens at the age of eighteen. They become legal adults. They can vote, enlist in the military, and have the rights and responsibilities of adults at that stage. While in no way attempting to undermine the value of family and parental guidance, it must be pointed out that a parent has no legal rights or responsibilities for their children once they reach adulthood. It is ridiculous, outrageous, and illegal to require someone who has legally reached the age of adulthood to deemancipate themselves and force them to make their parents their legal guardians due to no more than a blood relationship in order to enjoy that freedom to live their own lives as adults.
We have active duty military personnel who are legal adults, serving their country, coming home on leave to their spouse and families and unable to make their own decision on whether or not to get a tattoo without their parent's legal written consent!
2) "It is unlawful for a tattoo artist to tattoo any part of the head, face, or neck of another person."
While it may not be prudent, wise, or socially acceptable on a wide spread scale, to tattoo our heads, necks, or faces, our bodies are our own. Our Constitution protects us as a people, and as individuals. It does not enforce the wishes, fears, and prejudices of the majority, but protects the rights of its individual citizens.
The First Amendment states,
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
— the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution"
Tattoos and how we express ourselves with them clearly fall under the protections of both Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech.
3) "The department (DHEC - Department of Health and Environmental Control) must not grant or issue a license to a tattoo facility, if the place of business is within one thousand feet of a church, school, or playground."
America is a nation of capitalists. It is a nation of diversity. As much as we, as individuals, might fear those we perceive to be different from us, that does not give us any legal right to prohibit them from setting up a business or residence within proximity to us just upon the fear and prejudices we might hold that these new establishments or residents might be a negative influence. The fair housing laws dealt with this ad nauseum concerning race and property values. This falls under many of the same prejudices that created racial profiling.
Imagine how ballistic a religious institution would be if told they could not, by law, worship in the manner they saw fit, within a certain distance of a particular type of business, park, place of education, or residential area.
4) "A tattoo facility may only provide tattooing and may not engage in any other retail business including, but not limited to, the sale of goods or performing any form of body piercing other than tattooing. "
This is a clear attempt to make the practice of tattooing as unlucrative as possible. If the many requirements set down by DHEC are adhered to, there is no additional risk whatsoever from having trained, certified body piercers operating out of the same facility. What risk does selling T-shirts, decals, body jewelry, books, snacks, or other general merchandise, outside of the actual tattooing stations or piercing stations, create for anyone? Tattoo Parlors throughout North Carolina and most of the United States combine the two with literally no ill effects when proper infection control procedures are followed.
Our Constitution clearly calls for the separation of Church and State. It provides for Freedom from Religion, as well as Freedom of Religion. We do not have a national or state religion in the United States or in South Carolina.
We reject this attempt to impinge upon our Constitutional rights and force someone else's chosen version of morality upon us.
We reject this attempt to use illegal and unconstitutional laws to take away our rights to assemble peaceably for the sake of business or fellowship, on private property, breaking none of the "real laws" and harming no one, expressing ourselves as individuals and adults as we see fit.
People who chose to give and receive tattoos, body piercings, and other body modifications, come from all walks of life, all colors, creeds, races, religions, and levels of education. We are no longer the stereo-typical ex-convicts, prostitutes, drunken sailors, outlaw bikers, skinhead racists, drug addicts, and inner-city gang members that Hollywood and the Moral Majority would portray us as. (However, they, as adults in a free country, have a right to get tattooed too, as long as the drunken sailors and drug addicts wait until they can come back when they are clean and sober!) We are mainstream Americans!
As concerned citizens, voters, and business people, we have many avenues of change that can be pursued. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the State of Illinois to change the legal age for tattooing from twenty one to eighteen and won. It can happen again. We can seek correction from our elected officials. We can actively campaign to replace any elected officials who feel they are above the law and no longer represent not only the wishes and desires of their more wealthy, vocal, and powerful constituents, but of all South Carolinians, and all of those who value the US Constitution and the freedoms and securities it provides for us individually and collectively.
We ask you, the elected representatives of the voters of South Carolina, to address and correct the four areas brought forth above until they are within the boundaries created by United States Constitutional Law.
Sincerely,
 
YOUR SIGNATURE
 
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I have read the Redress of Unconstitutional South Carolina Tattooing Laws Petition to The South Carolina General Assembly and Governor Mark Sanford,, and I hereby sign the petition:
Eligible signatories: Legal Adult Citizens of South Carolina and The USA
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PORT ORCHARD, Wash. -- Prosthetic-tattoo entrepreneur Dan Horkey believes he's a step ahead of the competition.

"I'm the original," said Horkey, who's just started a business to turn clients' artificial legs and arms into pieces of customized art. "I want to add color to people's lives."

Horkey lost the lower half of one of his own legs in a motorcycle accident in 1985. Two of the protheses he uses today have fiery orange and yellow flames shooting up the sides.

Both resemble detailing that might be found on souped-up cars, and Horkey actually calls on some of those car-detailing techniques in his business, Global Tattoo Orthotic Prosthetic Innovations.

Now he's ready to offer custom art to others, be they diabetics who've lost limbs, soldiers injured in wars or accident victims like himself. The art might be a nature scene, album cover, or any type of design the client can imagine -- even solids to match skin hues.

"I want to try to cheer these people up," Horkey said.

And he's starting up a business that caters to a growing number of people. In the United States, there are 1.7 million people living with limb loss, according to the National Limb Loss Information Center. That's one out of every 200 people. And the number is expected to rise as obesity rates climb and more are plagued with diabetes and vascular disease, which can lead to limb loss.

For now working out of his home, Horkey and his helpers can apply "tattoos" to the socket, or cup, part of prosthetic limbs employing different techniques with a range of costs.

The least expensive technique, from around $150 to $375, would entail a process where fabric with a design is applied to the prosthetic. The high-end technique would be airbrushing -- like they do on cars -- to the tune of about $450 to $600.

"They supply me the art; I get it airbrushed," he said.

Customers would have to give up their limbs for a week to allow for the work, and fall back on their spares.

This is just the beginning of the Horkey's dream. In two years, he'd like to have a prosthetic and orthotic fabrication and tattoo shop, drawing on labor from the local Suquamish Tribe of American Indians.

"My interest eventually is to employ tribal members and teach them a new trade," he said.

Beyond that, Horkey plans to make and offer a number of items related to artificial limbs that he has trouble finding now at reasonable cost. That would include items like covers, or limbs that could be traded out when wearers go to the beach, go swimming or take a shower. Not all can go into water.

"I'm tired of sitting on a shower chair at the age of 44," he said.

Horkey comes from the construction trades, but frustration at insurers' refusal to cover the full $5,000 cost of periodic replacements of his artificial leg caused him to switch occupations so he could make his replacements himself.

He and other amputees still are fighting that battle with insurers, and they are behind a proposed law before Congress that would increase insurance coverage for prosthetic care, S. 3517, the Prosthetics Parity Act of 2008.

Tattoo tiff brings torrents of that word

Paul Carpenter

June 27, 2008

Disfigured skin points where culture is going

Paul Carpenter

June 18, 2008

As one culture ascends, it seems, another declines.

This week, we learned that 36 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have tattoos. It was just last year The Morning Call reported that 16 percent of all Americans were thusly self-mutilated.

The sight of Mike Tyson's gorgeous artwork, no doubt, has persuaded millions to flock to tattoo joints. Or maybe it's the growing popularity of ''mixed martial arts'' bloodfests, which put tattooed subhumans into cages to brutalize each other.

''Proud parents bear tattoos honoring their kids,'' said a headline over Monday's story.

''It's super big right now,'' the story quoted Steve Lemak as saying of the mom and dad tattoo trend. He owns The Quillian joint in Allentown.

''You'll never find a more meaningful tattoo than one for your kids,'' said Kiel Ferrari, described as an ''artist'' at the Minds Eye Tattoo in Emmaus. (I also have seen graffiti vandals described as ''artists.'')

Along with the story, there were photographs of bodies mutilated with hideous ''artwork.'' One was of an arm with a truly unfortunate depiction of a child's face. I am sure the real child is cute; no child could actually be that homely.

On the very same day that our eyes were insulted by those vulgar photos, the paper ran another story elsewhere, plugging the premier showing of a new television program about the joys of prostitution.

The show was imported from England, where, the story said, ''it was aired last September and was blasted in the media for glamorizing prostitution.'' (We have an MTV show glamorizing pimps, so why not glamorize their pathetic puppets?)

I can't say I'm an expert on prostitution. I'm too parsimonious to gain first-hand knowledge. (Stories on Eliot Spitzer's $4,300 dalliances nearly gave me apoplexy.) Nonetheless, I've said a lot about both prostitution and tattoos, which, come to think of it, always seem to go together.

No one can deny that the heaviest concentrations of tattoos occur in the lowest segments of society -- prostitutes, pimps, pugs, prison inmates, Ku Klux Klansmen and the members of street and motorcycle gangs.

Now, according to this week's story, 36 percent of young people have decided to emulate such lowlifes.

And some news media want to glamorize them.

Do not glamorize accomplishment. Do not glamorize intelligence, insight or integrity. Don't glamorize courage, generosity, leadership, skill or diligence. Such qualities are for nerds. By all means, glamorize pimps, prostitutes and those who emulate them. That is the future of America's culture.

Aware of how some of these devoted self-mutilators are going to react, I am compelled to emphasize that I do not favor any restrictions on personal behavior. If an idiot wants to get a tattoo, he or she should be free to do so. I just think responsible news media organizations should not glamorize them. What's next? Glamorizing child molesters or kluxers?

In some older cultures, influence traveled from the top down. Early Americans marveled at the intellect of people like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and decided that education was a good thing, so they developed public school systems.

In some modern cultures, influences travel from the septic bottom up. In no time at all, we'll catch up to the Stone Age cannibals of the South Pacific.

paul.carpenter@mcall.com 610-820-6176

 

This is the second article.

 

License needed to braid hair, not for tattoos

Paul Carpenter

July 11, 2008

Tattoo Discrimination In The Workplace.

By Gabriel Eastman.

Over the past few months I have been looking for a job to supplement my income while I attend school. Everywhere I apply, I seem to hit a brick wall because of my sleeves and gauged ears. For the past ten years I have been self employed, and I consider myself too be very lucky. There are not many people who have that opportunity. I never realized how fortunate I was until I started my job hunt. I am not looking to enter the corporate world. I just want a menial job that will put a few extra bucks in my pocket. A lot of employers now put right on the application"No Visible Tattoos." After all the negativity, and discrimination I faced, I decided it was time to find out what offended people so much about tattoos.

A few weeks ago I was at the bookstore, you know the type, with a coffee/danish shop in the front, and big soft chairs that you sink into while flipping though the pages of a book that you aren't going to buy. I needed some help finding a particular book, so I walked around looking for someone who worked there that could help me. As I looked up and down the aisles I found a woman who worked there. To my surprise she had more tattoos than I have, and her ears were gauged. I asked her where I could find the book I was looking for, and she gave me a smile, and promptly walked me over to the section of the store that I had passed five or six times in my search. I thanked her for taking the time to show me where it was, and then we started talking, and looking over each others art work. I told her my plight, and asked her if it was hard for her to find a job, at which point she explained to me that she was unemployed for months before she started working at the bookstore. She also told me that she has a college degree, but because of her appearance no one in her field would hire her. I thanked her again and made my way to the front of the store so I could purchase my book.

While I was standing in line, I noticed an older woman, maybe in her mid to late fifties, with spiked bright blond hair and piercing's up and down both ears. I stepped out of line and asked her if I could speak to the manager, she smiled at me, and then preceded to tell me that she was the manager. I asked her if I could talk to her, that I had a few questions about the companies policy about hiring people with body modifications. She agreed without hesitation. As our conversation moved on, she told me that she has worked for the company for fifteen years, and that she has seen a lot of changes in the companies attitude about people with body mods. She told me that it was up to the store managers to hire any individual that they thought was the right fit for the job, and that she did not care about tattoos, but some do. It is a personal choice left in the store managers hands. She was surprised to hear about the road blocks I have encountered in my job search.

I left the store wondering if there was something wrong with me, and if so, what could I do to change it. This put me on a mission, I had to find out why I was going through such a struggle, and it seemed to me that others were not. When I got home I started calling friends all around the country, and asked them if they thought it was my character that was holding me back, or if this is the way that a great deal of society looked at tattooed people as a whole. I was reassured by all of my friends that it was not my character that was keeping me from finding employment, which made me want to dive even deeper into the subject, so I could understand more about how different people viewed body art.

The next day I called one of my old customers, his name is Tony, and he is a WWII veteran in his eighties. He served in the pacific, and just like many others who had served in the Pacific, he had tattoos all over his forearms, but by now they were just big blotches of black that adorned his forearms. I went to his house that afternoon. We sat down out on his porch, and he started to tell me a story about having tattoos after the war. He said he had never been looked down upon because of his tattoos. He also stated that the men in his generation that got tattooed either during, or after the war, were revered as tough heros, and people looked at him with respect because they knew what he had done for our country. As we sat there I showed him most of my art, he told me how amazing the work was, and that he would have had more tattoos, if the technology, and skill was around in his younger days. Most of the people that are in his generation look at me as if I were an ex-con looking to rob them in the grocery store parking lot. I thanked him for listening to me and telling me his stories, but felt even more confused, I still could not understand why I could not land a job.

So my quest began. I was out to find the truth about how different companies, and people viewed the art that adorns our living canvas. I was willing to do anything to get down to the bottom of this confusion that haunted me. I needed to know why I could not find a job, and if more people were going through the same thing? I dove head first into finding out the true reasons for Tattoo Discrimination in the work place. You will be shocked and amazed when I tell you the whole story about what I found about Tattoo Discrimination. To be continued.......