Do You Judge A Man By The Color Of His Skin?

It’s amazing to see how people react to each other in life.  My parents always taught me the “dont judge a book by its cover” principle.  Sure I may use caution until I gather more information so I can make my decision, but I’m a pretty open minded guy.

I’ve always loved tattoos, as a kid I used to stare at my grandfathers ink on his forearms; an old school navy anchor and the other a classic heart with my grandmothers name in it.  Seeing that I knew I wanted to have tattoos everywhere, I would be on the life journey to complete my “suit”!

When I finally became old enough to get some ink my good friend Mr. Pooler was dead set against it.  He was a older than I and someone I resepected so I heard him out.  I agreed to wait until I was 30 to get my first tattoo if I still wanted one.  I kept my promise, let me tell you it was extremely difficult but looking back I’m so glad I did.  I know I would be covered in a bunch of random ink that just didn’t flow together.

When I turned 30 I still had this burning desire to have ink, so I did my homework and finally found Ahren Bloomquist at Lucky Seven Tattoo in Libertyville, Illinois.  You can check out his web site at www.ahrenbloomquisttattoo.com  I’ve always felt it was important to have a good relationship with your artist, after all they are designing something for life and you will be spending alot of time with this person during the process so you better get along.  We talk the entire time while he’s digging those needles into my skin about life, we like the same music, have similar dislikes but most importantly he loves the styles of ink that I do.  Nothing worse then having someone not into putting the ink on you!  When I discuss my next project ideas with Ahren his eyes light up and he’s always excited to get the piece going.  Oh yeah one last “positive trait” about him, he loves to laugh at me when he digs into those “tender spots”.  Every now and then I wish tables would turn but I know the same thing happened to him when he received his ink.  Its sort of a right of passage, we all go through it, those that haven’t just dont understand.

So my first tattoo was a marriage of a chef knife and one of my favorite style of flash, the americana pin up girl.  All in black and grey and lots of fun to get!

I was immediately contemplating my first sleeve and lets face it I have been working in “corporate America” for some time.  I’m clearly no “suit & tie”, but they have these control issues where everyone has to fit into a mold.  I remember I referred a friend of mine for a job a few years back who happens to have a sleeve and right after his interview they called me and asked “what I was thinking, he has tattoos all over his arm!!”  WTF, that is some sort of contagious life threating disease?  Dont touch the guy with ink, it will rub off on you!  He is such a talented chef and did not get the job because of that?  Oh well that restaurant is long gone out of business, serves you right!  My friend is quite the success and has kept adding art to his body.  Another example of me scratching my head was when I had a General Manager freak out on me because I wore a thumb ring.  I was asked “what will the guests think?’  Ahhh I don’t know he wears a ring on his thumb I thought to myself!  Seriously WTF, its just jewlery?

So the final story on throwing caution to the wind was when I was talking to my friend Emily, her words of wisdom opened up a whole new world for me.  I was explaining my concerns and the business world in which I worked, how its looked down on, you have to cover all your tattoo’s up and its just silly etc…  Her words of wisdom “do you really want to work somewhere that won’t accept you for your tattoo’s?  If they dont accept you for the way you look they certainly wont accept the way you think, what a horrible uncomfortable work environment!”  She was so right, maybe I’ve always been a bit to over the edge for the “suits”, but at least now they anticipate it when they look at me.  I’m so thankful that The James is a modern forward thinking company!

My second piece was my sleeve honoring my grandfather and grandmother.  We had it laid out on my arm and just before Ahren started he asked if I was sure.  I said yes, he asked again and added, “ya know people are going to treat you different”.  I said yes and moments later the outline began! I decided to have a mermaid sitting on the rocks, holding the rope to the anchor on the bottom of the sea floor.  True to life my grandmother always held everything together when grandpa was out at sea.  I filled it in with an old school clipper ship, a star fish, a treasure chest and some plants.

You know what?  Ahren was right!!  As soon as I got the sleeve I started to get poor treatment/service from servers at restaurants, employees at various stores.  Random people would stare, point and make comments.  I’m greeted with “hey tattoo, what can I get you?” at the bar.  Like really?  Ok so next time I great a table I should say “hey overweight balding guy, hows your steak?” or “Mrs. gaudy outfit and too much make up and choking perfume, are you enjoying your salad?”  Why would anyone think this is appropriate behavior?  I have this ink so I couldnt possibly understand proper service, trust me I’m the worst when it comes to judging service, generally I always expect it to be crap, that way when its good I’m surprised and happy.  I finally came to the understanding that if your this ignorant and closed minded I’m better off with out you.

Next up I decided to get another Americana pin up girl, this time a red head, sitting in front of a wine glass, symbols of bad luck like the ace of spades, snake eyes and a black kitten that is actually from my old skateboard by natas kapus.  Those of you who know me, know I love kittens!  Everyone asks why a red head, my response “aren’t they all bat shit crazy?”  haha!  kidding of course!

Recently we have been finishing my other sleeve which is a japanese piece (my other favorite type of tattoo work) featuring a big snake, lots of cherry blossoms, a japanese spider monkey and its web.  I completely hate snakes, always have, and the spider monkey is a fictous character.  It reminds me to keep what is real and important the focus no matter if I like it or not.  Dreaming is great, but I have to make my dreams reality.

Upcoming Projects – the tops of my feet will be the old sailors good luck charm but presented in a culinary way.  Sailors used to get a pig and a chicken on thier feet because it was said you could walk on water if the ship was sinking.  The crates the animals were packed into during transport used to float for a while if the ship went down, sailors would swim to the crates and hang on for life.

My chest will have a big skull bitting down on my heart, of course the skull is wearing a crown!  A classic old school tattoo with deep personal meaning to me.  The outline is in a couple of weeks, I cant wait!!!!!   Still alot of skin to cover, lots of real estate in constant developement!

So my mom asked me the other day if I’m going to keep getting tattoo’s, I had to explain the idea of a suit to her.  She wasn’t exactly happy, but then I said “mom, I’m still the same guy I was when I didnt have ink.  I still open doors for every woman, I still help people constanlty and try to be a good human being.  I haven’t changed, but the way most people look at me has.”  Her simple reply sums it up “that’s sad”.