OK, I’ll admit it. I have a couple of small tatoos. When I got them about 15 years ago, there were no local tatoo parlors to go to. If you wanted a tatoo back then, you had to head out of town (unless you had a friend that knew somebody that had a brother that did some tatoos on the side). Once I decided that I wanted one, I took the trip out on Route 17, located a place, and walked in.
The first tatoo I got was almost my last. The guy who owned the shop was willing to take my money but he was hardly into customer service; in fact, he was downright rude. He was also sexist. I wanted the tatoo on my wrist but he refused, saying women shouldn’t have tatoos beyond their shoulders. Had there been another tatoo parlor open that Sunday afternoon, I would have left (and I probably should have). The guy was a bit of a sadist. That tatoo was the most painful thing I had ever done.
When I decided I wanted another tatoo – this time where I wanted it, I certainly didn’t go back to him. Instead, I chose another Route 17 tatoo parlor. This place was overflowing with customers and was obviously high output. I chose a design, the guy made a little transfer thing that he used to put the outline on my wrist and then got to work. I also had him put some color into my previous tatoo. When he saw the outline of the earlier one, he mentioned that it must have really hurt, as the lines were quite heavy, confirming my suspicions that the earlier “artist” had intentionally made that experience more painful than it had to be.
I wanted other tatoos but was stopped in my tracks because it was more important to me to be able to donate blood. Back then, there was a concern that some tatoo parlors were using dirty needles and that the AIDS virus may be passed thru the blood supply, so you were not allowed to donate blood for a year after getting a tatoo.
I know a lot of people don’t particularly like tatoos, which is why mine are out of sight. (The one on my wrist is under my watch.) Even I am turned off by people who seem to have tatoos everywhere; Mike Tyson’s facial tatoos are horrible, in my opinion. Still, it’s his body and he should be able to do what he wants.
Which brings me to Norfolk. Council on Tuesday, facing a lawsuit over tatoo parlors, has wisely decided to move forward with an ordinance which would allow them to operate in Norfolk. Norfolk, like many cities, outlawed them years ago in a effort to clean up the city. But today’s clients for tatoos are not yesterday’s, as Kerry Doughtery points out: most of them are women, aged 18-40.
Encouraging successful businesses to operate within the city is a good thing. We can always use the extra tax revenues. So I’m gald to see Norfolk coming to its senses on this.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 