The "A Grandson's Tribute" Story

Tad and Steve in front of the tattoo studio in Lancaster

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting on a revolving chair with black latex gloves and a tattoo needle vibrating in my right hand while I put the finishing touch on my youngest son's latest tattoo.  Tad enjoys tattoos.  At first I thought he was nuts to spend all that money to cover his body with black and colored ink that as he ages will look considerably different than it does now.  But, I must admit that the artwork that he carries with him all the time is beautiful.  A few years ago I wrote a story about his tattoos and showed you quite a few of them.  Then, last year, I wrote another story about the tattoo he has of professional hockey goaltender Grant Fuhr who played for his favorite team, the Edmonton Oilers.  And again, another story about the tattoo that he now carries on his left arm that shows an image of his grandfather, who is his namesake, in his army uniform with bombs exploding, planes firing rounds, and a ship in the water.  Right under the tattoo are the birth and death dates of his grandfather.  Today he is getting a tattoo in honor of his grandmother, Dorothea Elizabeth Woods, also known as "Dot."  After he told me he wanted to get one as a tribute to mom I told him that when he had it done I would go along and take photos of it to show exactly what transpires during the tattoo process.  Well, today was the day.  I arrived at noon at the "Transcending Flesh Tattoo Studio" located on the corner of N. Water and W. Chestnut Streets in downtown Lancaster, PA.  The owner and head tattoo artist is a fellow by the name of Steve Lowry who was a student of mine when I taught graphic arts and photography at Manheim Township High School.  He was in the same graduating class as my oldest son so I knew him quite well.  He was an extremely talented artist in high school and after seeing some of his tattoo work over the past 20 years, I knew he was using his skills in his profession.  Steve has been doing tattoos for 21 years and opened his own studio at the current location in February of 1997.  He has 5 other artists working for him and they are busy as ever.  Seems all the recent shows on TV about the art of tattooing has led to an explosion in the field of tattooing.  I hadn't seen Steve since he graduated from high school, but had heard about him through Tad.  After a few greetings, Steve placed a call to his friend Eric who is a professional photographer and who I also had as a student in high school.  Thought he may want to come and visit with me, since I hadn't seen him for quite a few years.  Well, time to begin.  Steve opened a padded folding table for Tad to lay on, since he was having the tattoo placed on the rear of his left calf.  First has to shave all the hair from the area, then scrub the area thoroughly, then transfer the idea which Steve had drawn in script of the word "Dorothea" accompanied by flowers that were to represent African Violets, mom's favorite.  Just then Eric arrived and we all talked for a short time and he asked if I had any tattoos.  "Not yet!" I told him.  "We'll see.  Maybe someday."  After transferring the drawing onto his calf, Steve prepared the ink for the tattoo.  The ink is primarily a glycerin base with natural pigments such as plants, earth or animals used to add the coloring.  Much the same as printing ink used to be made.  The tattooing device is a knurled stainless piece of metal about an inch in diameter and four inches long with a hole running through it which holds a device that hold the tattoo needles.  The power supply, primarily a rheostat, is controlled with a foot pedal.  The needle is actually a grouping of anywhere from 3 to 9 extremely small needles that are soldered together so they can hold varying amounts of ink depending on the area to receive the ink.  Everything around Steve is covered with removable plastic coverings which are changed after every client.  Steve dons his black latex gloves, grabs the tattoo tool and begins tracing the lines in black.  Every so often he wipes the tattoo with clear glycerin, using a clean pad each time, to clean any color that may have run.  I was amazed to see that there was absolutely no blood whatsoever.  "Does that hurt?" I ask Tad.  "Kinda feels like constant bee stings that never stop or maybe like scratching a bad sunburn you might have."  Doesn't sound like fun to me!  Then he told me that it hurts the most to get your ribcage or the top of your foot tattooed.  After doing the black outline, Steve replaces the 5-needle tip with a 7-needle tip that he called a brush, since it will be like painting with color to finish the tattoo.  He has prepared at least half a dozen colors that he will use to blend and color the flowers.  Neat watching and photographing this artist at work.  Instead of a canvas or paper he is using human skin as his vehicle for his work.  I thought going in that I might be upset with the procedure, but I was amazed with what I saw.  The needles only go about a 1/32" below the skin, but enough to maintain the color, even when the skin constantly sheds itself.  It is deposited in the stratum corneum layer which is directly above the pigment layer.  That is why the color covers the color of the person's skin, but will not disappear with shedding of the skin's outside layer.  I eventually asked Steve if he was finished, and he replied, "All but the dot that Tad wants."  Seems the dot was just to be a dot of black ink to remind him and others that she was called "Dot" by my dad as well as others.  Then he said, "Switch places with me so you can add the dot of ink on Tad."  "Not me," I said.  Well, the two of them convinced me I could do it so I switched seats, put the black latex gloves on my hands, picked up the tattoo device, dipped it in the black ink and touched it to the spot on the tattoo where Tad had indicated he wanted the dot.  Just as easy as that!  Now it was finished.  Cleanup of the tattooed area, covering with a plastic sheet to prevent it from touching his pants, and then a total clean-up of the table and area where Steve had just worked.  Steve wanted to know when I was coming in to have mine done.  I'm sure he would do the work for me.  Time will tell.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - naturally you'll have to check out all the photos I took of the procedure.

Tad holding the original design created by Steve.

After transferring to Tad's left calf.

Selection of some of inks available for coloring.

Colors selected for the tattoo.

Steve showing me the tattoo tool.  Needles fit into the tiny tip at the end.

Steve starts to add ink to the design.

The artist at work.

Adding the violet colors.

Addition of another color.

Final color is added.

Tad looks on as Steve and LDub change places.

And the "Dot" is added.

Final result with the "Dot".