Tattoo

On one of my photographic wanderings this past winter I ended up taking some photos in the Skincraft Tattoo and Piercing studio on Hamilton Avenue in Northside, an experience I found to be rather fascinating. I had been in the area shooting an assignment for a photography class and when the sun went down and outdoor light was scarce, I quickly began to brainstorm ideas for an interesting indoor environment to photograph. I decided to walk into Skincraft and see if there was anyone willing to let me take some pictures. It was around 9 pm on a weeknight so I figured there wouldn't be many people in the studio but I was lucky because shortly after I walked in, a woman came in for a tattoo. She was a young lady, probably in her early 20s, and she was accompanied by a friend and her baby. She didn't mind being photographed so I was able to document the tattooing process as a tattoo artist named Bryan engraved "Romans 8:28" onto her skin.


As Bryan got together the tools necessary for the tattoo, he educated me about body art and how he first became interested in it. The young lady had come into the store knowing that she wanted a tattoo of the title of a bible verse but she was unsure of how she wanted it to look so Bryan sketched out a couple possible designs on a sheet of paper and she found one she was happy with. After she settled on her design, Bryan went straight to work.

The whole process took about forty minutes, which seems to be a decent amount of time for something that's only 2-3 inches in length. When the tattoo was finished, the young woman walked into the lobby and showed it off to her friend before they headed out the door and straight to bible study.