Who in the world gets a neck tattoo? A couple of years back you could have narrowed the answer to gang members, prison inmates, members of Russian mob and the rapper Lil Wayne. Then something occurred. In a mysterious and inexorable process that seems to transform all that is low culture into something high, permanent ink markings began creeping toward the traditional no-go zones for all kinds of people, past collar and cuffs, those twin lines of clothed demarcation that even now some tattoo artist are reluctant to cross. Not entirely surprisingly, facial piercing followed suit.
Suddenly it is not just retro punks and hard- core rappers who look as if they've tossed over any intention of ever working a straight job. Artists with prominent Chelsea galleries and thriving careers, practicing physicians, Funeral directors, fashion models and stylists are turning up with more holes in their faces than nature provided, and all manner of marks on their throats and hands. A year ago, jenny Dembrow, an associate executive director of the Lower eastside girls Club, a Manhattan social service agency, decided to add to her collection of body modifications, which already included a Greek key necklace inked below her clavicle and draped across her shoulders, holes pierced in her cheeks, and earlobe perforations that have been stretched an inch wide over time. The design Dembrow said’ I’ve been drawn to tattoos and counterculture,” as she presided over a tea party held for girls and young women served by her agency.” T this point, though, it almost seems as if you’re more outside the mainstream if u don’t have tattoo.”
Who can say, she added, what would happen if she thrust back into the work force? “Would I be forced to sell punk rock T- shirt in some horrible shop on St marks Place?” she said. She might. While there is ample evidence of tattooing migration from the backwaters of alternative culture into the mainstream ( or at least onto some part of David beckham’s body)’, we are still a long way from seeing facial tattoos on the selling floor of the stock exchange. In case after case, the courts have found on the job appearance requirements – including policies forbidding tattoos and body modifications – to be nondiscriminatory.
It is only relatively recently that tattoo artists were comfortable inking neck and hands. “ In the old days tattooists wouldn’t do it.’ Said Bob Baxter, the editor of the tattoo journal skin and Ink . “There are 528shops in New York and maybe 10 won’t do it now.”
