|
||
|
|
||
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.
Home / Email this post
Wednesday Apr 26, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Philippine Beauty
In the 80’s, I was in the Navy, stationed in the Philippines. We worked our asses off during the day, but it was like a regular job, you know? When we were off work, we were OFF.
The port we were stationed at was kinda set up for us Navy guys. It was actually a boardwalk comprised of a mile and a half of bars. At the time, the dollar exchange was really good, too. So everything was cheap as hell.
All the guys would get off the ship, and go tearing into any one of the hundreds of bars the port had to choose from, but I had a different craving…
There was a tattoo shop in the middle of the strip. That’s where I went first. It was a funny place. With the dollar exchange the way it was, the tattoo guy made more money than most of the other guys working the boardwalk.
The owner was a real little dude, named Orlie. He was a hell of a tattoo artist, and sort of a celebrity around town, too. He had this huge bodyguard who stood in the doorway of his shop, and Orlie left piles of cash out on the counter, just to let people know business was good.
Business was good- my business that is… I went in there all the time, just couldn’t get enough. It wasn’t anything like it is now in the states– all Orlie did to sterilize stuff was pour a bunch of grain alcohol over your back, but it worked for me. This is one of my favorite tattoos ever. I swear, hanging in that shop, on that boardwalk, at that time with those guys was like a fantasy Disney land for guys. I don’t think I’ll ever have it so lush again."
| 
© Electric Artists Inc. All rights reserved.
