Published 2:29 pm Wednesday, June 26, 2024 By The Daily News Including touch-ups and additions, I’ve sat in a tattoo artist’s chair over 20 times. I rarely wear long-sleeved shirts, so you can see some of my collection if we ever meet. I use that word intentionally: collection.
As a lover of tattoos, I’m also a lover of art. I thus collect art from artists all over the world. The difference between me and a collector of oil paintings is that I always have my art collection with me and never run out of things to look at.
Not everybody appreciates tattoos, nor does everybody understand why people get them. It’s easy when you see somebody like me, covered in tattoos, to make assumptions about the content of their character. There’s still a bit of a stigma out there that suggests, to some, that only lower-class or rough people get tattoos.
My father used to be one of those people. That’s why I waited to get my first tattoo on the day of my 18th birthday when my parents were in Scotland. There wasn’t much he could do on the other side of the globe! He wasn’t pleased initially, but he eventually came around and has now gone to the shop with me several times.
He hasn’t yet got his own tattoo, but I’m working on him. Over time, that stigma has lessened. 40 years ago, somebody who looked like me would never have been called to be the pastor of St.
Peter’s. Actually, no church would have hired me. But here we are, in 2024, and a metalhead, tattooed comic book nerd.
