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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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Tuesday May 30, 2006
EveryBODY has a Story: The Calling Card
"The image of the baby and the swans comes from a woodcut block from the turn of the century. What I like most about this tattoo is that it has no symbolism for me, it doesn’t really Mean anything.
When I look at it though, I see something elegant, almost classical. I didn’t want to put a skull or a dagger on my arm, I didn’t want to be marked that way, or to suggest anything that might be perceived as negative or threatening.
I wanted to have an image that was positive, something attractive for people to see. This tattoo is on my right arm, and when I shake somebody’s hand, when I make contact with another person, it’s the first tattoo they see on me: Something with positive energy that is the calling card for my career.
The tattoo was done by Donny Manco at Studio B in Indiana. He was my art teacher in high school. Tattooing was illegal in Indiana until around 1997, and that’s when Donny Manco opened up for business. In 2001, I asked him to let me apprentice, and when he realized that I was serious about my request, he accepted me as an apprentice.
He tattooed the baby and swans on my arm just this last winter. It is almost exactly like the image from my business card except that my business card has geese instead of swans.
People always ask me if it is my baby, and at first I didn’t know what to say because I don’t have any kids. Now I just kind of go with it, “Yeah, he’s two now, learning to walk, smart as a whip...”.
I have since moved and opened shop in the West. You can check out my work at ryanzachary.net.
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