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INKEDblog takes you beneath the skin of today's tattoo culture. Our mission is to celebrate tattooing as a modern art form which incorporates art, fashion, style, and pop culture. While paying homage and respect to the past, we look to present a contemporary take on the present and future of skin art.
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Thursday Sep 29, 2005
Justin Pelgano's Tattoo Stories - "The Wake"
Tattooing in the wake of tragedy; there’s more here than meets the eye. The surface explanation for getting inked after life-altering loss falls along the lines of “Lest We Forget.” But it seems to me impossible to ever lose sight of such catastrophic events, tattoo or no tattoo. Post 9/11, ink landed heavy. American flags, FDNY/NYPD insignias, bald eagles – a collective symbolism that found its way into many people’s skin. And if remembering that day isn’t really the issue (for how could we not?), I’d venture that these tattoos are much more an honoring – of the victims, the city, and even the extraordinary emotions that coursed through those who fought to regroup.
Bobby was living in Brooklyn on September 11, 2001. He watched from his roof as the towers fell. “I knew people that worked down there, sure. Everyone got out okay. But waiting to hear and not knowing what was going on, those were some of the worst hours of my life. My entire family lived in Manhattan at the time, and I remember so clearly just wanting to be with them…. I’ve read articles about people in the city who, after 9/11, got married, quit their jobs, things like that. I think people were so shocked by what happened that it became a “carpe diem” thing for them…. This is gonna sound ridiculous considering what so many people went through but – what I did after 9/11? I got a tattoo. Two weeks after [the attack] I was walking around downtown, and you could still smell a burning in the air. I was sort of in a daze. And for some reason I just kept thinking, ‘Well, you’ve always wanted one.’ When I was a kid I’d collected tattoo magazines. I just never got around to it. Or I always had reasons to put it off. But that day I finally decided to go through with it. I don’t even remember the name of the shop. I walked in, picked a tribal design and did it. [An hour later] I walked out feeling a little bit better. As better as you could then.”
As to what the tat signifies for Bobby now that it’s well-worn and settled:
“Be true to yourself everyday. Don’t put it off.” Doesn’t sound ridiculous to me at all.
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