Tattoos Too Taboo?

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Tattoos Too Taboo? It’s hard to look authentically rebellious or menacing these days, when even well-behaved businessmen wear earrings and ponytails and college students destined for quiet suburban lives have body piercings and tattoos. Tattoos, in particular, are not radical, bold brandings (which many held as a violation of body) of flesh as they once were. There are more tattoo artists now than ever before and there are almost 1,400 licensed tattoo artists available in New York alone. Tattoos are probably better and safer now than they’ve ever been, and it goes without saying people get more creative with such a wide variety, applied in many cases by serious, highly skilled body artists. Then again, there are tattoos, and there are tattoos. Some tattoo aficionados have transformed large portions of their bodies into multicolored canvases for all types of skulls, serpents, raptors, dragons, flowers, vines, angels, demons, daggers, buxom bombshells and portraits of heroes and loved ones. If you can dream it, there is an artist that can produce it. Tattoos have been used for centuries to reflect changes in life status, whether passage into adulthood or induction into a group like the military or a gang. In recent years, tattoos have also become a fashion accessory, a trend fueled by basketball players, bands and celebrities. A report by the Food and Drug Administration estimated that as many as 45 million Americans have tattoos. There are also those regrets and a tattoo that cost several hundred dollars to apply could require several thousand dollars and many laser sessions to remove. Another trend in tattooing has begun and looks to be the next big thing. (Kwiatkowski) Auri Reynoso, a hairstylist in Englewood, N.J., says she wanted to roll out of bed “looking beautiful.” So three years ago, she asked Melany Whitney, a certified permanent-cosmetics

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