Tattoo artist

Magnet #1072 - Norman Rockwell's Tattoo Artist

I've always wanted a tattoo. But, other than my name, I can't figure out what I wouldn't get tired of within hours.

I know this to be the case, because last year, at a trade show a client and I got the back of our hands henna'd at one of the booths.

Gorgeous work. But by the end of the day, I was tired of looking at it. A few days later and several meetings where I shouldn't have had any ink (henna or otherwise) on the back of my hand, and I was ready to chop my arm off.

Yeah, the obvious thing would be to get it where I won't ever see it. But then, what's the point?

That's why this Rockwell painting of The Tattoo Artist from the Brooklyn Museum (and their really cool Norman Rockwell exhibit)* cracks me up. The artist is busily scratching out the last name and adding yet another lady love to the growing list. Heh. Funny.

It's supposed to be a tattoo shop down in the Bowery here in town. I will say, if I ever manage to screw up the guts to get one, I probably wouldn't end up down in the Bowery. I'd likely go back home to my friend's shop. I trust him, mainly because I know him and know he'd probably laugh with me when my nervous laughter would inevitably give way to tears of pain. But, I'd go to him also, because before he ever touched the ink, he was always been the artist of our bunch in high school, so it'd be flat-out gorgeous, no matter what I decide to get.

For now, though, I'll just get jealous whenever I see anyone's ink on TV...usually Alex O'Loughlin's arms on Hawaii Five-0 (real) or Jax Teller's back on Sons of Anarchy (fake).

And you're welcome, for those links. :-)



*If you get the chance, definitely head over to the Brooklyn Museum for their Norman Rockwell Behind the Camera exhibit. Fascinating stuff. Rockwell's one of the few major artists who basically set designed and cast every painting he ever did. The exhibit takes you behind the scenes of those photoshoots, and shows you how he composed entire paintings by editing and cropping dozens of those images together.