Tattoo

As always history, symbolism and meaning provide an interesting overlap of cultures and times.

If you are thinking about getting an tattoo it helps to know the background on them and do some research to find out the different meaning and symbolism of tattoos.

Some common designs in ankle tattoos are a tribal symbol, a floral arrangement or an initial. An ankle tattoo can be small enough that it isn't noticeable unless the person is very close.

Many professional women choose this type of tattoo because it isn't overbearing and at the same time it allows them to carry something personal on their bodies always.

Once you have decided on a design and coloring for your ankle tattoos

you'll want to visit a reputable establishment that does tattoos. Looking through the yellow pages is one route but if you know anyone who has a tattoo you should ask them about their experience. Quite often they'll be happy to share with you and they may recommend a place for you to visit.

After deciding on a tattoo parlor you'll want to discuss with the artist your concept. If you come there without a design in mind they will

There are literally hundreds of thousands of mass designed tattoo art works available, and, if one of them isn't right for you all that is standing in your way is your imagination and the right tattoo artist. Tattoo artists, like those featured in "Inked" actually get followings due to the quality of their work.

One of my favorite tattoos is a Rosie the Robot from the Jetson's (not that I would ever have one on my skin). There are of course animal tattoos, flower

The care that you receive in a tattoo studio must be flawless. There are measures that each tattoo studio must follow in order to ensure a sterile environment for patrons. Each state may have their own laws governing tattoo studios. Some tattoo studios require their artists to have mandatory training in sterilization techniques. Check with the studio. Also, how do you choose a tattoo artist? Perhaps, like me, you have a co-worker who isn't shing down her panties to reveal her large flower and total or complete body tattoos.

Word of mouth is the best way to find a tattoo artist. Look at their work. Visit the studio, go several times. Look around, do you like what you see? Are the work areas clean? Do the artists seem to be following guidelines assuring cleanliness? How are they interacting with the patrons? Make sure that you consider the tattoo process thoroughly. Having a tattoo removed can be painful, and costly too.
About the Author Catherine Olivia
To learn more about Tattoos please visit http://www.tattoo-dragon.info

Who has a tattoo, and where?

What do you get when you're a celebrity who has everything? These days, the answer seems to be a tattoo. No longer the exclusive decoration of sailors and bikers, tattoos are leaving a permanent mark on the arms, legs, chests -- and other body parts -- of a growing number of celebrities and non-celebrities. Depending on your point of view, tattoos are vulgar or vogue, shocking or sexy, degenerate or de rigueur. As tattooing's appeal catches on across the country it's becoming obvious that there's more to this trend than meets the eye.

Part of tattooing renewed allure is the rebellious image portrayed by many who have one. "Rap culture has a lot to do with it," says Jacci Gresham, a tattoo artist in New Orleans. The majority of her clients are under the age of 25. "They see these rappers on TV and want to be like them. They copy the clothes, the speech, so why not the tattoos?"

Tattoos also adorn the muscles of many athletes, including 35 percent of those in the NBA,

and grace the curves of a growing number of starlets and recording artists. As part of her latest makeover, Janet Jackson has several tattoos, including one on her lower back and another below the bikini line.

Actress Halle Berry sports a tattoo on her rear end (a sunflower that covers ex-husband David Justice's name) and has been seen wearing a temporary one around her navel, Rappers Sean (Puffy) Combs and Mase both have real tattoos.

Singer Mary J. Blige has several, including her name around one arm and a rose on her thigh. As far as we know, basketball sensation Michael Jordan doesn't have a tattoo, but his teammate Dennis Rodman has a total of 22.

Despite a resurgence in popularity, tattoos are not for everyone. In most states, you must be at least 18 or have a parent's permission to legally get one. Doctors stress that tattoo parlors should be sanitary and the artists must use clean instruments to prevent spreading disease and infection.

Experts say the process of having ink injected into the skin with multiple needles can range from a mildly irritating experience to an excruciating ordeal. Also, artists who haven't been formally trained and operate without a license should be avoided.

"You don't want someone who isn't licensed injecting ink into your skin," advises Dr. Janee Steinberg, M.D., a cosmetic surgeon in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla. Actress Lisa Nicole Carson got her first tattoo on impulse. "

However, tattoos don't work for everyone. "I think tattoos are sexy on some people, or at least interesting," says Carson. "On other people, it's just corny."

Kravitz agrees. "I think a tattoo can be very sexy, depending on where you put it."

The most popular place to get a tattoo is the upper arm. Following closely behind are the chest, ankle,

shoulder, calf and back. In recent years, celebrities also have begun sporting tattoos on their wrists, stomachs and rear ends.

The types of tattoos are just as intriguing as their locations. According to Gresham, the average Black client tends to get the traditional Black panther (men), rose (women) or names of loved ones, but celebrities tend to take more creative chances. "You see a lot of symbolic designs," says Gresham. Tribal patterns, Asian symbols and beautifully rendered portraits are common. For most, the tattoos have a personal or spiritual significance. "It doesn't make any sense to have tattoos that don't have meaning," Gresham believes. "You can't just wash it off; it will always be a part of you."

What if you experience buyer's remorse? You could try heavy makeup, or hire a tattoo artist to cover it up with a new one. If you experience an allergic reaction to the dye or decide the tattoo isn't you, new technology can erase it. Tattoos can be permanently removed without leaving a scar. Experts use special laser lights that break the ink into smaller particles, which are then absorbed by the body and flushed out of the skin.

For people who like the look but can't make the commitment, fake tattoos are a painless and temporary solution. Stick-on versions can be detailed and colorful, but they don't fool anyone at close range. Another option is mehndi. "Why make a commitment to a tattoo if you feel unsure about it?" says Loretta Roome, a trained mehndi artist and author of Mehndi:

The Timeless Art of Henna Painting. A 5,000-year-old art form originating in Egypt, mehndi is the practice of drawing patterns onto the skin with an all-natural henna dye. Roome has painted intricate designs on supermodel Naomi Campbell and superstar Madonna, among others. With mehndi, her clients have body art that looks permanent and can be reapplied or replaced when the original fades.

The types of people who come in for tattoo are "extreme," says Roome. "It even blows my mind. We've done a lot of women in their 70s side-by-side with people in their 20s.

It's not the tattoo, but where you put it,

Few subjects arouse more heated arguments than the ancient tribal art of tattooing. An Australian friend whose husband has just run off with his busty blonde secretary, whose whippet was flattened by a truck and whose job with a fashion magazine has just folded, rang in tears the other night to tell me that none of these setbacks compared with the anguish she was presently feeling having just discovered that her 16-year-old son had had an elephant tattooed on his arm.

What sort of elephant, I asked, Indian or African, for I have only lately discovered the difference. Indian elephants have neat, floppy ears whereas African ones have those huge, surprised ears the shape of fig leaves

It was not the right response. Catherine said furiously that the nationality of the elephant was irrelevant. Frankly, it wouldn't have made any difference to the way she felt if the tattoo had

been of a jumbo jet. It was the fact that Oliver, her beautiful son with the physique of a Greek god and skin as smooth and supple as a baby's, had permanently violated his young body and would never be the same again. Oliver, it turned out, has joined a rugby club in Melbourne whose logo is an elephant, which apparently is the reason that Caleb Ralph has had his left arm tattooed with the fern insignia of the New Zealand All BlacksCaleb who? you might say as I did when a TV producer sounding all of 13 telephoned this morning to ask, in view of the news that the Queen's granddaughter is dating an All Blacks rugby player with a tattoo, called Caleb Ralph, would I be prepared to take part in a late-night chat show about the social and psychological implications of body painting. No I wouldn't, I said, and might have added that I couldn't give a stuff if Zara Phillips was walking out with a cross- dressing accountant with a parrot.
As a matter of fact, I do know a bit about tattoos. Two of my daughters have them. One has an elongated Egyptian eye on her hip, though don't ask me why. When she showed it to me, it reminded me of a haddock I had just seen on the fishmonger's slab. The other has a rose behind her ear and a star on the inside of her wrist where she says it doesn't show. This surely defeats the point of having it at all, I would have thought, but, as my daughter would be the first to point out, I am stuffy and old- fashioned and don't appreciate the finer points of style. Tattoos, once the domain of rough, tough macho blokes - sailors with mermaids on their chests, truckers with "love" and "hate" on their knuckles, gangsters with black dashes round their throats and the instruction to "cut along the dotted line", are now eagerly sought after by fashion-conscious young women.

Most of my daughters' friends have a tattoo somewhere, usually a flower or Chinese star sign not so big like the full body tattoo of this Japanese Lady here, and I'm reliably informed that Victoria Beckham has "good luck" in Chinese tattooed on her buttock. Her husband has eight, including his children's names and Victoria in Sanskrit on his back, though apparently it is spelt wrong. Robbie Williams has the musical notation of "All You Need Is Love" - crochets, quavers, demi-semi-quavers, all careering across his stomach. I did hear of a man who had his entire back tattooed as if the skin had been removed and you could see all the ligaments, bones and organs replicated underneath.

It cost a fortune because there were so many colours, took three months and hurt like hell, but he said it was worth it. Forget the social and psychological implications of body painting. What about the straightforward pain. By pure coincidence. someone showed me a junk-mail brochure he had been sent in the post with examples of various saucy new tattoos currently on offer. It's one thing to have a swarm of bees tattooed on your shoulder, where your skin is relatively tough, but where the brochure was suggesting it should go - above the caption "Bees round the honeypot" - it looked horribly painful.

Years ago when I first came to London, I got lost one day in the maze of streets around King's Cross and found myself outside a door marked Jock's Tattoo Studio. What an eye-opener. Jock, a massive, bearded Glaswegian who looked as if he ate

sheep whole, was making a pretty good fist of reproducing the roof of the Sistine Chapel on a scrawny young man's even scrawnier back. Was it the most difficult tattoo he'd ever done, I asked.

No, said Jock, he'd once been asked to tattoo a Scotsman's testicles tartan.
Author SUE ARNOLD
Copyright Independent Newspapers UK Limited Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved. Athletes Tell The Meaning Behind Their Tattoos
As star athletes play in coliseums, areas and stadiums across the country, their fans can't help noticing the growing number of tattoos that adorn their bulging biceps and other muscle-laden limbs.

Tattoos are transforming their classic physiques into true works of art. Every symbol or phrase holds a meaning as unique as the famous person it decorates.

Some of today's hottest sports stars reveal why they chose them and what they mean.