TATTOOS: A SIGN OF DEMOCRACY?

Frankly speaking, I felt dizzy on my way home from the Romantyka Palace of Youth, after attending Ukraine’s first independent tattoo festival. As I sat down to write this feature, I felt torn by conflicting emotions. Before turning on the computer, I spent a long time scolding myself for my dreamy conservatism, orthodoxy, and many other world view faults that come with age (or should I thank God that they do?). On my way to the Romantyka Palace I was foolish enough to assume that the tattoos would be either fake or temporary, but when I saw a cute girl expose her back to the tattoo machine, which made a colorful pattern covering almost her entire back, I quickly pushed my open jaws shut and did my best to look as though “everything’s OK,” that I was simply interested in the pattern being created by the artist. It was a dragon — or was it a flower? I scanned the catalogue of tattoo designs and tried to picture the expression on the mother’s face when she sees her daughter slightly altered.

Meanwhile, on stage an athletic, fair-haired young man was setting a Guinness record. Alik from Kolomyia, currently a resident of Kyiv (he adamantly refused to give his last name), was having 250 needles driven into his body. Incidentally, those needles were ordinary medical ones bought in a drugstore. He had paled noticeably but he held his ground. He was surrounded by young men and women clad in black jackets, and I thought that a record like this one could be set in more appropriate sanitary conditions.

I walked around the hall and found a seat in a far corner to wait for the festival organizers, because I realized that my presence was making everyone uncomfortable. No, I used the wrong expression, because nothing could make those young people feel uncomfortable. It was simply that they kept their distance, as though I were a leper, eying me with surprise, perhaps irony. How stupid of me to put on a light-coloured, severe-looking suit and a pair of fashionable white spiked boots. How crazy of me. Everyone around me was dressed in black, each sporting five earrings in their ears, lips, noses, and navels.

The festival’s chief organizer, Ruslan Kaspersky from Lviv, turned out to be a very pleasant, well-mannered, educated, and very religious young man. He told me, “We aren’t doing anything wrong. It’s true that really strange people often visit my salon. One character came recently and asked to have his ears cut off. I talked him out of it and recommended making some incisions and changing their shape.”

Aren’t you afraid of being accused of maiming people?

Ruslan: What maiming? We sign a contract with each customer, so there can be no complaints afterwards; s/he does it of his or her own free will. In fact, this festival was designed to enhance the tattoo culture, so body artists can meet and discuss their problems. A tattoo should not make you ugly but beautiful. You can’t imagine how many “scratchers” (as nonprofessionals are called by body artists) there are; they do everything in unsanitary conditions and mutilate bodies using God knows what kind of tools. By the way, there is a factory in Kharkiv that manufactures quite good sets of tools. Good for today because human thought is never at a standstill and the technology is always being perfected. Expert tattooists must keep pace technically as well as creatively. So, these kinds of festivals are absolutely necessary. Of course, nothing happens without a hitch, we have our shortcomings, but we’ll keep them in mind next time and will make many corrections. You see, tattoos are in vogue all over the world, so it’s too late to turn your back on it. You have to control the process to a certain extent.

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Body artists from several cities in Ukraine, Russia, and Moldova took part in the festival. Their Polish colleagues were present as guests. Representatives of BMI, an international organization of tattoo artists, were members of the jury. Most artists came with their models — this was one nomination. The other consisted of works created during the festival; that was a separate competition. Many participants and especially the visitors regarded the whole thing as a game and were on the lookout for excitement. I think that the girls who were getting their backs, arms, legs, and breasts tattooed were not totally aware that with time, when they get tired of playing games and have gained weight, their strange birds will become horrifying monsters that will make their lives a nightmare. World views tend to change, and they will no longer be able to spend their nights in discotheques; they will have other priorities and, if you will pardon my saying so, different weight and size. Instead of size 28 and 30 it will be size 40. Then the tigers and the dragons will swim about, gazing in detachment at real, not make-believe, realities where one has to pay for everything. They will be ashamed to walk around their grandchildren even half-clothed and this will become the most horrifying minor worry of their life.

I had a long talk, with a body artist from St. Petersburg. When I asked if he wanted his wife to have a tattoo, he replied, “She already has them: a delicate design around her ankle and a small flower on her shoulder. I won’t let her do more. We are civilized people, and everything should be done in moderation and should serve harmony, not monstrosity. If you want to fool around, you can take up body painting or use transfers. You can easily wash them off your skin.

INSTEAD OF AN AFTERWORD

Two young American women from the Peace Corps, who are living in Ukraine, have a different view. They are teachers, who teach English and a healthy lifestyle to children. They were the representatives of the international tattoo organization. Mora Smith has finished her work in Pryluky and is heading home to Arizona. Erica Paterson is working in Svaliava. Erica said that the traditional Ukrainian mentality associates tattooed people with drugs and alcohol, which is wrong. Her own tattoos are works of art and a sign of democratic attitude to people. That’s precisely how people should regard this.

Listening to Erica, I thought: what if her lifestyle courses in a small patriarchal town encourages all the schoolchildren to get tattoos? Americans can be of great help here — in the sense of democracy. Suddenly I pictured a granny coming to school to pick up her grandson and seeing a schoolteacher with tattoos all over her breasts and legs. I can almost see that shocked old woman hugging the boy to her, totally confused. Actually, I don’t understand this either, so I laugh until I cry.