Painted Men
street shot. Toronto Canada.
More urbanites going under the needle as tattoo taboos fade, artists and sociologists say.
Few expressions of individuality are more telling than a tattoo.
At a time when curating one's image is as non-committal as changing a Facebook status, artists say more young people are embracing the permanence of body modification by way of ink and hypodermic needle.
In B.C. this week, CBC News found evidence of so-called amateur scratch artists willing to mark up underage teens without legal parental consent.
It's the kind of "flash art" tattoo experience that University of Toronto sociology professor Michael Atkinson underwent as a 17-year-old in Halifax — choosing a Guns N' Roses emblem from a wall and having it inscribed on his left bicep.
"It was $40. That was 1989. They didn't ask any questions, it was just 'Here you go,'" said Atkinson, author of Tattooed: The Sociogenesis of a Body Art.
Painted Men
street shot. Toronto Canada.
More urbanites going under the needle as tattoo taboos fade, artists and sociologists say.
Few expressions of individuality are more telling than a tattoo.
At a time when curating one's image is as non-committal as changing a Facebook status, artists say more young people are embracing the permanence of body modification by way of ink and hypodermic needle.
In B.C. this week, CBC News found evidence of so-called amateur scratch artists willing to mark up underage teens without legal parental consent.
It's the kind of "flash art" tattoo experience that University of Toronto sociology professor Michael Atkinson underwent as a 17-year-old in Halifax — choosing a Guns N' Roses emblem from a wall and having it inscribed on his left bicep.
"It was $40. That was 1989. They didn't ask any questions, it was just 'Here you go,'" said Atkinson, author of Tattooed: The Sociogenesis of a Body Art.