Ryan DePersio’s left arm was full of tattoos, but his right arm was bare as a baby’s. Until this week. The chef at Fascino, Bar Cara and Nico has a new tat, and it’s not one he bought off the shelf. DePersio dreamed it up — a samurai chef, surrounded Berkshire pigs and roosters — and Ox, the owner of Jinx Proof Tattoo, created it for him. The outlining is done, and when the shading will be finished in a few weeks, it will set DePersio back about $750 to $1,000 (depends on how many hours it takes.)
I wondered, how many of you have tattoos? I’m guessing that they’re actually more prevalent than Twitter accounts among our readers. (DePersio told me was heading to Jinx via Twitter). Take our poll, tell us what your tat (or Twitter handle) is, and upload a picture to our Flickr group.
What if I have a tattoo of a Twitter?
Then, my dear Kristin, you win!
Perhaps slightly off topic, but am I the only one who thinks Bar Cara may have taken a bit of a slide lately?
Tacky, desperate-reading item, even on what clearly bodes to be a slow news day with the start of both Passover and Holy Week rites..
As an LA Fitness member, what strikes me is how many people these days are apparently not concerned about either their future employment prospects or possibly offending others’ sense of propriety. (But then, this is an age where the aggressively boorish ask Are you giving me an attitude?” when you don’t immediately embrace their loutish behavior.) It’s no longer cute or merely decorative. But, rather, quite openly self-destructive or at least self-limiting in so many instances.
Do I really want or need a chef so recklessly adorned cooking my food? Probably not if I have other options I also could do without all the gangbanger and white supremacist tattoos much in evidence at LA Fitness in Clifton. Really, the plethora of body ink isn’t the most heartening trend in society these days.
Oh cathar, it wouldn’t be a slow news day without you!
By all means, Cathar, stay home.
Kristen, you’re on a roll.
To each their own, but these days it’s increasingly commonplace to see people covered with more ink than a Maori tribesman. Also, particularly women are festooning themselves with these cartoonish designs. But unless you are self employed and have no aspirations of working in a more traditional corporate culture you could run the stigma isn’t entirely gone.
I think The Onion captures it best in this video linking unemployment with the proliferation of facial tattoos. As the man says, “Just because I lack good judgement doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be a good employee…”
http://www.theonion.com/video/high-unemployment-linked-to-increasing-number-of-f,26741/
A few years ago there was a clear tattoo age line with those of us of a certain age brought up to believe that tattoos were only for “Sailors and Loose Women.”
But now, with tattoo parlors in every Mall, to be different one should be tattoo free. As the Prof knows: classic, unadulterated skin never goes out of style.
For laughs check this: http://www.hulu.com/watch/61336/saturday-night-live-turlingtons-lower-back-tattoo-remover
For horror check this: http://www.badtattoos.com/
I’ve seen a couple of tattoos over the years that still stand out in my mind. I wonder what ever happened to the guy on the beach in the early seventies that had a tattoo of a burning joint on his bicep. He must dread going to golf outings. Another guy had Harley Davidson across the forehead back about 25 years ago, now he’s the head of the Short Hills Republican Club. Than there was a Red Sox fan that had the most grotesquely elaborate full arm tattoo of a Boston player crushing the skull of a Yankee with his bat. Eyeballs flying out, blood everywhere. “Well dad, how about those Yankees?”
Despite the passing desire to get a double helix tramp stamp, I’m with prof:
“classic, unadulterated skin never goes out of style.”
I have plenty of friends with tattoos but I just usually find them aesthetically jarring–skin is beautiful and I like a clean landscape.
I’ve always looked upon tattoos as something for losers (in the deadeye sense of the word, meaning, people who aren’t wall streeters or corporate types or professionals–ie, most people) but I’m thinking perhaps I’m out of touch. Tattoos seem to be widespread in many socio-economic groups. It’s a form of people’s art. So maybe I should relax and just accept them and try to appreciate them for their artistry. On the other hand, my kids, both teenagers, also think that tattoos are something for losers, in the deadeye sense, though they would never use that word, nor have they even articulated the thought. I should ask them. I’ll let you know.
I wish I didn’t get a tattoo when I was 20 years old. It’s a copy of Georgia O’ Keefe’s painting Sunflower and it’s on my ankle. I was an art major at the time and it felt right. It could be worse I guess. I’m glad I didn’t get a big ol’ “tramp stamp” on my lower back. I’m also glad it’s a flower and not something I would really regret.
But still, I really wish it wasn’t there anymore. But I don’t regret anything more than the naval piercing I got in Key West when I was 21. I wish I woudl have thought about what my stomach would look like after having children.
I have a small tattoo on my shoulder that I got when I was young, hungover, and living in hoboken. I still love it.
No one in my corporate office would know I have it, even in short sleeves. To each his own.
Oh, I so pined for a naval ring, Georgette. I went to Key Largo for spring break in college and my friend’s navel ring got infected. A belly button oozing pus kind of made me change my mind.
One summer my brother brought a girlfriend to the beach who had a gigantic sun tattoo on her stomach. The belly button was like the core of the sun with everything radiating out from there. I was mesmerized but my parents laughed as they wondered what it would look like after a few babies.
Okay, I admit that I don’t pass judgment on those with small discreet tattoos. I’m surprised I don’t have one but I was never motivated enough, I guess.
But, to be perfectly honest, and you know how I hate to offend people, the word association that comes up with those gargantuan tattoos isn’t really loser, it’s more, um, trashy. I apologize to all the people out there that offends. In the end, I judge a person by what’s on the inside, not the grotesque display of ink on the outside.
“One summer my brother brought a girlfriend to the beach who had a gigantic sun tattoo on her stomach. The belly button was like the core of the sun with everything radiating out from there. I was mesmerized but my parents laughed as they wondered what it would look like after a few babies.”
It depends on the mass of the star. I could become a red giant or go supernova.
Yes, good point. I think she should have gone with the supernova stage initially, it would have weathered the effects of age much better.
I, too, wish I had never gone out with my med school buddies drinking so many years ago. I awoke the next morning with the word BRAINS on my back and a gigantic arrow pointing down. It’s quite a conversation piece at the beach, but just doesn’t seem right.
I regret nothing more, though, than the time I had all of my head hair removed by electrolysis. Why? Why!
Jinny Buffett said it best: “A permanent reminder of temporary insanity.”
And, Tom, I don’t know if Bar Cara has “slipped,” as you queried: we went there a couple of times after they first opened and we were largely underwhelmed.
I am surprised that no one has mentioned the traditional restriction in Jewish burial rites against the tattooed.
One of the smartest criminals I ever met was a high-ranking member of a bike club (not the Angels, their brothers get a dated “in” tattoo when fully made and a similar “out” tattoo if they leave the club) who had no tattoos whatsoever. “I always figured I might have to be on the run someday,” he told me. Thus he wanted no distinguishihg marks to be mentioned on his wanted poster.
On the other hand, I also recall once seeing a guy waiting in line for the bus to Bloomfield at Port Authority, nerdy looking with glasses and a bad haircut, short-sleeved (and clean) white shirt and tie, but also a large swastika tattooed on his right arm. I could not for the life of me imagine what he might do for a living other than maybe work in the mailroom of a white supremacist organization. Talk about limiting one’s life prospects…
Yes, Debbie, this was clearly a slow news day attempt to gin up posts. (Obviously it worked.) Even reliable Tom Traubert posted in clear high dudgeon. Why was this item even relevant to the cooking skills of the chef, since most folks never meet the chef?
But the ink was out in full force at LA Fitness this morning. So much so that it’s often truly difficult to tell the off-duty cops and firemen working out there from the gang members from the very same towns. And profwilliams, the very elaborate nature of this kind of ink indicates an awful lot of forethought. These tattoos are not mere drunken snap decisions.
cathar, it’s called “human interest.” News is only part of what we do.
As I was reading this thread, I was waiting for the jewish angle.
Funny how all the yentas in florida who poo-poo a tattoo will have no problem going to get their face pulled back or injected.
The “law” is that one should not alter their body, hence the no tattoos, but that rule seems to not count with plastic surgery. LOL…It’s a genrational thing.
Wife and I started getting tattoos in our 30′s and am happy with them…she is a corp accountant and just wears a sweater to cover them. I do agree that face tattoos and the likes will make it difficult to get work, but nobody should be worried unless they decide to put a swastica or go Mike tyson.
Tastful art and it is art is pretty cool and mostly you cant understand what they mean unless you talk to the person and hear the story.
I have tatau on my leg and on a list for a tebori piece.
Personally I have heard some ok things about Jinx, but didn’t connect with the artist whom I talked too, the powerhouse guys seemed nice too but I goto and reccomend Starlight for some mainstream/tribal/custom stuff…tatau,tebori and this single needle master are specialties and the artists travel and come around from time to time.