Tuesday  Aug 09, 2005

Rae Schwarz and Jessica Lund talk Tats, Pagans, and Snoopy Dances…

One of best resources on the internet for information about tattoos is Rae Schwarz's Body Art collumn for Bella Online. Recently INKEDblog contributor Jessica Lund sat down with Rae to talk Tats, Pagans, and Snoopy Dances…

Jessica Lund: Hey Rae, good morning! Tell me about you and tattooing.

Rae Schwarz: Actually, I'm not a tattooist. I seem to get that a lot.

Jessica: Oops.

Rae: I'm an enthusiast or collector, as they say in the tattoo world. And a writer.

Jessica: I read your columns and you seem to specialize in some really interesting tattoo ideas.

Rae: Well, I've been crazy about tattooing and body art in general for about 20+ years now, so I just keep learning what I can and passing it on.

Jessica: Your stories are remarkable... Did you ever consider tattooing, or has writing always been your focus?

Rae: If I had any drawing talent, I would be tattooing.

Jessica: Yeah... I hear ya! What was your first tattoo?

Rae: My first tattoo was the Japanese kanji "koto" which means "to be different" when I was 21 years old. I had already had a few episodes of drawing on myself in junior high, and in high school I used some of the first temp tattoo products too, so really, my interest is the ink in general. The Japanese style is one of many traditional forms of skin art that I like.

Jessica: What is your favorite tattoo that you have?

Rae: I love them all, but presently, I'm really into what was the most recently work I had done, which is some symbology and designs on my chest. On the left side is the plant 'honesty' and an old Coptic design, right side is the sign for 'quinta essentia' and peacock feathers.

Jessica: What does this tattoo mean for you?

Rae: It's part of my spirituality. The left side is how I take in energy and the right is about how I put it out into the world.

Jessica: Nice. Do you write pieces other than on tattoos for Bella?

Rae: I'm also their Pagan topic editor. Recently, I’ve been exploring the holiday Lughnasadh, the first harvest festival is July 31st, so I've got articles on that. Plus I'm working on the review of a documentary about people who still worship the old Greek gods in Greece, and the conflicts they get into. It's like the Christian/Pagan conflicts in the US.

Jessica: Can INKEDblog readers find this info at Bellaonline?

Rae: The Body Art topic can be found here and my Pagan-oriented writing is here. Actually, Bella has over 400 topics covered, all mostly written by women, so there's a lot of everything to be found.
However… At body art, the readers seem to want a lot on movies and celebs. The pagans don't seem to care about celebrities, LOL.....

Jessica: Ug., I never write on celebrity tats...

Rae: Ha! Every time Britney Spears gets another tattoo with a mistake in it, I do a Snoopy dance.

Jessica: Double HA!!! I’d like to see that! You’re cracking me up, girl! So I heard you get a ton of emails with questions about piercing and healing- are most of them similar??

Rae: Yes. About 90% of what I'm getting are nose piercing questions. People think they are a casual piercing, but healing cartilage can be tough. I got so many (questions), I wrote an eBook that sells pretty steadily.

Jessica: What are the main problems people experience with piercing (and how the heck can readers buy your book)?

Rae: The main problem is that cartilage piercings have a great inclination to form 'keloids' which is a type of raised scar tissue. It winds up looking like a bump, right next to the piercing.

Jessica: Eww, Bummer,. What do you do about it?

Rae: Well, they are sort of hard to deal with. I had a few on my ears (nearly cartilage piercings) and I managed to shrink them down to nothing with tea tree oil. That's in the book, btw..... which is available on Bellaonline.com and costs just $2.95.

Jessica: Excellent! So, any last words of wisdom for INKEDblog readers?

Rae: Take as much time as you need to think about the design and if you are ready, before getting tattooed. It makes me sad when people email me and they are unhappy with, or worse, they hate their tattoos.

Jessica: I agree. Thanks so much Rae- I'll keep reading your stuff and I bet a lot of INKEDblog readers will too!

Rae: Thanks!

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