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Tattoo Junkies: Making art, one body at a time
Posted: December 6, 2006
Love. Heritage. Music. God. Crime. Punishment. Protection against evil. Vanity. Television.
 MULTIMEDIA
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Humans (and occasionally animals) have been tattooed for almost as many reasons as the years the art has been practiced, but it’s all become a little more feel-good. Sailors no longer have the crucifixion tattooed on their backs to avoid flogging and we’re (mostly) no longer branding humans to identify their religion or criminal history (learn more about tattoo history at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattoo). The art of tattooing continues to shed more and more of its rebel/outcast associations, with everyone from your mail carrier to your high school French teacher showing off his or her ink.
Another thing of the past? The old image of the tattoo parlor – a smoky lounge with overstuffed chairs and ashtrays, full of drunken GI’s waiting to put something on their forearm they’ll have to hide from the grandchildren years later. Take Tattoo Junkies, for instance (find directions and phone number at www.myspace.com/tattoojunkies), a new studio in Portsmouth opened in the spring of this year by Shawn Wjaun (formerly of Midnight Moon in Chichester).
The studio is sparkling clean, with a comfy leather sofa and lots of pens for sketching ideas in the waiting area. A few racks of flash and tattoo magazines are available for inspiration, but the owner is happiest doing custom work. Wjaun works along with Stina Sardinha – she apprenticed under him and the two have a combined 21 years of experience. Skilled artists, they are both able to draw from photos or a customer’s description. According to the studio’s Myspace page, they’ll do anything from “Custom, Japanese, Pin up, Portraiture, Tribal, Old school, New school and even Lettering.”
Wjaun told me he frequently advises people, reminding them the image will be there forever. (He used the example of the 18-year-old who wants a pot leaf on his forearm, saying “that’s going to be trouble.”) I asked if people tend to think of their bodies as a total canvas – and therefore creating each tattoo as part of an overall theme. Wjaun does encourage this – but of course not everyone is able to see that far into the future
One of Sardinha’s creations, a vibrant image of a Japanese geisha, was recently crowned “Best in Show” at the 2006 Seacoast Tattoo Festival, held in October. When Seacoast Connects visited the studio last week, Sardinha was putting Mark Anthony Bellia’s last name on the side of his torso. Check out the video for some footage of art in progress. And if you’re interested in filling in your own physical canvas, look up Shawn Wjaun and Stina Sardinha at Tattoo Junkies. But don’t bother if you’re not 18.
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