Tattooed girl

Women are getting tattooed more often than men. Most women prefer to ink their arms with colorful, painterly images. Although facial tattoos are becoming increasingly common among men, they’re rare among women.

According to Dial-the-Truth Ministries, “a tattoo screams of unabashed rebellion and deviancy.” Founding minister Terry Watkins says tattoos have been used throughout history as “a mark of disgrace or reproach,” something to brand criminals, traitors, deviants and outcasts.” 

But cultures around the world have centuries-old traditions of using body art to chart ancestry, demonstrate piety or illustrate personal journeys. In many civilizations, tattoos function like jewelry or clothing, to enhance the wearer’s beauty or status.

Tattoos gained the attention of Europeans in the 18th century, when sailors began returning home wearing tattoos as souvenirs from the distant lands they visited. 

During World War II, tattoos became ubiquitous in the U.S. Navy, and sailors inducted at Great Lakes Naval Base in North Chicago, Illinois, often got their first tattoos in Chicago or Milwaukee. Many of them came to Milwaukee to be tattooed by former Norwegian sailor Amund Dietzel, known as the “Master in Milwaukee.” 

After plying his craft around the world — and even showing off his heavily tatted body in circus sideshows — Dietzel hung his shingle in Brew City in 1916. 

During the tattoo explosion of World War II, he and three other tattooists were working 12-hour shifts at his 948 N. Plankinton Ave. business just to keep up with demand, according to Tattoo Life.  

In 2013, the Milwaukee Art Museum presented an exhibition of Dietzel’s work. The exhibit featured watercolor paintings that adorned the walls of Dietzel’s shop. 

Dietzel’s customers, like many today, chose their designs from those pictures, says Jon Reiter, proprietor of Solid State Tattoo, 2660 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. He loaned the Dietzel art from his collection to the museum.

Serious tattooists from around the world came to Milwaukee to check out Dietzel’s technique and equipment, as well as to get inspiration from his artistic prowess.

In those days, as now, tattooists generally learned their craft by apprenticing under a mentor. Among those who came to Milwaukee to learn from Dietzel was Samuel Steward. Unfortunately for Steward and the others, Dietzel didn’t take apprentices, says Reiter.

However, he did provide Steward with valuable advice.

Steward opened a tattoo parlor in Milwaukee for a short time, but quickly learned that no one could compete with Dietzel, Reiter says. 

Still, Steward is an important figure in the history of tattooing.

A poet, novelist and university professor, Steward left Loyola University in Chicago and, under the name Phil Sparrow, he started a new life as a tattoo artist. He was associated with some of the greatest literary figures of his time. Gertrude Stein was a mentor, and he had a close relationship with sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. 

So, Steward introduced tattooing to a whole new audience, although there’s no evidence he influenced them to get tattooed.

In the 1960s, he wound up in Berkeley, California, where he became the tattoo artist for Hell’s Angels, according to Justin Spring’s 2010 biography Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade.

 

Going mainstream

It was in the 1960s that tattoos started going mainstream in America, piggy-backing on the popularity of biker and hippie culture. 

But the business hit a snag when some states and cities banned tattooing. In Milwaukee, the Common Council shuttered all tattoo businesses in 1967.

“When I was in high school, people went to surrounding counties or to underground spots to get tattoos,” says Michael Perry, owner of Sanctuary Tattoo Gallery, 1112 N. Water St.

The tattoo drought in the city lasted until the mid-1990s, and Republican lawmakers have continued tinkering with restrictions on inking and piercing into this century.

After Milwaukee re-legalized tattooing in 1996, the city caught up with what has become a national phenomenon. 

Growth has been fueled in part by the popularity of reality television shows about tattooing, Reiter says. 

Social media also has been a major influence, particularly on Instagram and other platforms where people can share pictures of their tattoos.

Troy Timpel, who owns two tattoo businesses in the Philadelphia area, says ubiquitous tattoos on the celebrity circuit — among sports stars, musicians and actors — also are boosting tattoo popularity.

Timpel, a native of Milwaukee and graduate of MIAD, is organizing a large tattoo conference that opens in Milwaukee September 21.

Who might attend such a show?

Tattooing is considered cool by middle-age, wealthier clients — the same demographic that includes the average Harley-Davidson enthusiast — while the fastest growing demographic is suburban women.

And the appeal of inking is so strong that Whole Foods in 2016 was considering putting tattoo artists in its stores to bring in millennials, according to Bloomberg News.

 

In the business

In 2015, there were 60 tattoo businesses in the Milwaukee area, according to one unofficial estimate. They ranged from strip-mall storefronts to traditional parlors to luxurious galleries like Perry’s, which resembles a high-end spa and maintains such a degree of exclusivity that he and the one other tattoo artist working there limit themselves to one tattoo per day.

Perry often has guest tattooists who are associated with specific design styles.

Some of their more elaborate work can take 40 to 50 hours — over several visits — to complete, Perry says.

The tattoo landscape has been altered by improvements in ink, technique and equipment, as well as by the entry of artists into the business.

More than anything, new customers are drawn by the growing artistry of tattooists.

Perry, who refers to his workplace as a “studio,” is located in Milwaukee’s cultural center. His proximity to nice hotels and restaurants draws clients from out of town.

Perry’s work is so elaborate that some of his body art appears almost three-dimensional. 

“Tattoos done by the top 5 percent of artists today are far better than anything that was available in the past,” he says. “The inks and machines have advanced tremendously. Everything has become more convenient and easier to use.”

Like other types of fashion, tattoos go through trends and fads. Tribal designs from the Pacific dominated the scene several years ago and, Reiter says, they’re making a comeback. 

Perry is seeing more monochromatic designs in black ink. Japanese-influenced artwork always is in demand, which isn’t surprising when you consider that the country’s inking tradition dates back to 300 B.C.

Japanese-style tattoos lend themselves well to the growing taste for larger, more complex work.

Perry and other local tattoo artists say most of their work today is custom. They take clients’ ideas and translate them into images. 

“Sometimes the concept is to commemorate something important in their lives, but often they choose artwork simply because they like it,” Perry says. “It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

A growing number of people also are getting tattoos to cover up scars, including those resulting from mastectomies. 

“Reconstructing photo-realistic nipples on mastectomy scars or covering them with artwork is taking something that was bothering them and represented a bad experience for them and making it beautiful,” Timpel says. “It’s really good for people emotionally. It helps them heal and feel more confident.”

 

Tattoos last forever?

With so many factors supporting its growth, will the tattoo craze ever end?

Tattoo

For centuries, elaborate tattoos made of henna have been an Indian tradition. In recent decades, they’ve become popular in the U.S., particularly at festivals. Henna is temporary and wears off after a few days.

“Tattooing is too permanent to be a fad,” Timpel says. “The popularity is still growing. I don’t know where it’s headed (aesthetically), but I’m glad it’s here.”

One of his tattoo businesses, Philadelphia Eddie’s, sells a T-shirt that sums up the endurance of the art: “Tattooing sailors and whores since 1952.”

Others think the tattoo bubble will burst. 

“At some point, it will take a dive,” Reiter says. “There are already too many tattooers in the city.”

Many millennials embraced tattoos and piercings as an act of rebellion against their disapproving parents. Does that mean their children will rebel against them by eschewing  tattoos and piercings? 

Entrepreneurs are always finding new ways to apply ink — in the form of permanent eyeliner, for instance, or to cover up bald heads.

Some tattoos function as emergency bracelets, displaying such medical information as blood type and medication allergies. There are tattoos for diabetics that change colors when there are dangerous changes in blood sugar.

The tattoo craze also has created a new market for tattoo removal services. The American Society for Dermatological Surgery says demand for tattoo removals jumped 440 percent between 2005 and 2015.

It’s possible that witnessing what happens to tattoos on the aging, sagging skin of their parents and grandparents might give future generations second thoughts. But, at least for the foreseeable future, tattoos are here to stay. 

At this point in time, there seem to be no limits to how far inking can go.

The ninth annual Milwaukee Tattoo Convention comes to the Wisconsin Center Sept. 21–23. About 400 tattoo artists, including some who have gained fame through such reality television shows as Best Ink, Ink Masters and Epic Ink, will show off their work, give demonstrations and do some tattooing. Also, there will be carnival side-show-style entertainment — contortionists, fire-eaters and people suspended above the stage on hooks. Tickets are $20 for the day or $40 for a weekend pass. Children under 12 years old will be admitted for free. Tickets can be purchased here.

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