Body Art in the City
My birth state of Oklahoma is finally waking up to reality and allowing legal tattoos, the last state to do so. Oklahoma’s law did not allow “permanent” tattoos but in a fun twist tattoo studios opened up shop stating that laser removal options made tattoos non-permenant and therefore legal. Rather than allow this the state has changed the law and is setting up regulatory guidelines.
Like nearly everywhere else confusion surrounded the practice of tattoos, the artists and the patrons. In St. Louis this has been manifested in a ban in redevelopment areas. Common language is the following:
pawn shops, adult bookstores, x-rated movie houses, massage parlors or health spas, auto and truck dealers (new or used), pinball arcades, pool halls, secondhand or junk shops, tattoo parlors, truck or other equipment rentals requiring outside storage, blood donor facilities, free standing package liquor stores, check cashing centers, any use (except for financial institutions or pharmacies) that utilizes a sales or service window or facility for customers who are in cars, or restaurants that sell products to customers who are in cars or who consume the sold products in cars parked on the restaurant premises, or sell products through a sales window to customers who are in cars or to pedestrians outside the building for immediate consumption by the customer either on or off the premises.
The no sales to customers in cars ban (aka drive-thru), as you might guess, it a good rule in my book. Drive-thru restaurants are simply not urban. Neither are the drive-thru bank & pharmacies that are permitted.
But you just don’t get much more urban than a tattoo studio.
I take personal offense to tattoo “parlors” being lumped together with x-rated movie houses and blood donor facilities. Why a personal offense? Well, I have five tattoos so far. My first was at Iron Age in the loop while one of my more recent tattoos was done at Cheap Trx on South Grand (I was their first paying customer when they opened the tattoo studio, thank you very much). The others were done in San Diego, New York City and San Francisco (at the studio of well known tattoo artist Ed Hardy). For me, the tattoo is a wonderful art form that I embraced not in my impulsive 20s but in my 30s.
KSDK is running an AP story on a new study looking at the demographics of those who get tattoos:
The study, scheduled to appear Monday on the Web site of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, provides perhaps the most in-depth look at tattoos since their popularity exploded in the early 1990s.
The results suggest that 24 percent of Americans between 18 and 50 are tattooed; that’s almost one in four. Two surveys from 2003 suggested just 15 percent to 16 percent of U.S. adults had a tattoo.
“Really, nowadays, the people who don’t have them are becoming the unique ones,” said Chris Keaton, a tattoo artist and president of the Baltimore Tattoo Museum.
But body art is more than just tattoos.
About one in seven people surveyed reported having a piercing anywhere other than in the soft lobe of the ear, according to the study. That total rises to nearly one in three for the 18-to-29 set. Just about half — 48 percent — in that age category had either a tattoo or piercing.
Funny, our city’s redevelopment language doesn’t say anything about body piercing. I guess those with piercings are not as much of a perceived threat as those with tattoos? And yes, I have some piercings as well, all done at Cheap Trx on Grand.
I’ve visited many of the tattoo studios in our region and I know a number of the artists. I have friends with many visible tattoos and they are all productive, contributing citizens. In fact, at least one member of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen has a tattoo. I have also visited tattoo studios in nearly every city I’ve traveled to and more often than not they are part of the area which is considered hip & cool. Banning tattoo studios in large parts of St. Louis sends a message, “we don’t want vibrant areas with a diverse & youthful population.” Not a good way to compete with other regions for the creative class.
The legal and regulated art of the tattoo should not be banned from our redeveloped areas.
Update 6/13/06 @ 7:45am – From MayorSlay.com back in March 2006:
Tattoos have definitely gone legit – and the days when City zoning codes and redevelopment ordinances banned their studios are passing quickly. The most talented practitioners of the art in the City – like David – are booked months in advance. And, yesterday’s den of vice is today’s neighborhood hot spot.
Perhaps Francis is sporting some ink?
– Steve
“The legal and regulated art of the tattoo should not be banned from our redeveloped areas.”
I think the intention is to keep a tattoo parlor separated from a bar, pool hall, liquor store, and porn shop. Having all of these shops concentrated together in one area is very bad, whereas a nice area could absorb sparsely placed liquor stores, or tattoo parlors.
Porn shops, well that might be a harder sell 😉
[REPLY – No, the idea is they are banned. Period. For example, on South Grand the area between Utah and Meramec has been blighted and is part of a redevelopment area. Just like the ban on drive-thrus for the area, they are also saying no tattoo studios. If Cheap Trx wanted to relocate to this area they could not do so as part of a redevelopment project. – SLP]
Oklahomans could always get tattoos. You paid for the tattoo artist’s transportation, food, lodging, gave your new friend a birthday gift of cash, etc., instead of paying for the art. Housewives all across Oklahoma participated in this subversive activity.
What angers me is that PINBALL ARCADES, of all things, are banned!!!!! How nuts is that?!?!?!
Ok, now for a moment of seriousness.
While I have no tattoos (they’re just too permanent for my taste), I’ve been in plenty of tattoo shops. I’ve sat with a friend at Cheap Trx which she got a cover-up on her wrist of a home-made tattoo, which was a cover-up of a former boyfriend’s name (see my point about permanency?). And, on my recent trip to Seattle, I stopped in a tattoo shop in downtown.
While the demographics of those getting tattoos is changing somewhat, the old image of the biker with a skull pierced by a bloody dagger and surounded by a crown of thorns still pervades society. TV shows (you have a TV, right?) such as “Inked” on, of all channels, A&E (arts and entertainment?), are sending a mixed signal. You see patrons such as the one described above, as well as college girls getting the ever popular lower back scrawling.
With magazines dedicated to the subject, many now view tattooing as a legitimate form of self-expression and some even art, but that is still not the mainstream opinion. Can you imagine if tattooing was mainstream? “Grandpa just got a new 5 gage in his ear and Grandma just got Grandpa’s name and a dragon on her butt.”
—
On a personal note, if you are considering a new tattoo, one I’ve always liked is a bar code. You could get one on the back of your next and it would look very cool. Just an idea.
“If Cheap Trx wanted to relocate to this area they could not do so as part of a redevelopment project.”
…unless they know the right politicians.
…And, travis, I bet a lot more grandpas have tattoos than you expect.
Steve, I agree with you on getting rid of zoning ordinances that ban tattoo shops.
But let’s agree to get rid of all zoning ordinances. All they do is legislate taste and allow those who are politically connected or rich to get variances and do what they want anyway.
But wait, you do favor legislating taste when it comes to drive-thru restaurants!
So as long as something meets your definition of “urban” it has a place in the community, but if it doesn’t meet your approval than good riddance. Sounds tyrannical to me.
[REPLY Tyrannical huh? Checking my online dictionary I get “exercising power in a cruel or arbitrary way.” I don’t think you meant cruel so perhaps you are suggesting my support of some zoning and rejection of others is purely arbitrary?
Taste can be very subjective my main focus is on the physical form rather than the specific uses. We can have a McDonald’s every block so long as it is urban in form. For example, a Subway shop fits in nicely into the urban form.
Regulating drive-thru establishments is a form issue. Regulating a pinball arcade or tattoo studio is not about urban form but someone’s idea of an element that is objectionable in the community.
I think we may be better off dropping all the rules except for a few. One would be no parking between the public sidewalk and the front of the building. That alone would make new construction more urban. – SLP]
Desson Said:
“So as long as something meets your definition of “urban” it has a place in the community, but if it doesn’t meet your approval than good riddance. Sounds tyrrancial to me.”
No, it sounds like he wants to use zoning to protect the little guy from big businesses using money and political clout to hurt their neighborhoods. Single use zoning within non-industrial area, not “all” zoning, is what Steve is against(and rightly so) which you would know if you aactually took time to read his blog.
First, I believe everyone’s body is a temple to God making tattoing harmful, but coming from a liberal (Christian which is different from politics)denomination I cannot tell another person how to lead their life and only lead by example.
Thus, tattoos are alright shops and do add to the “hippness” of an urban district. Thus, it is alright for codes to be rewritten.
For tattoo talk if we ignore art, what’s the point? When old they are discolored on wrinkly skin. The message is permanent, but people’s understanding changes and younger people of the future will not understand what’s written/depicted or people your age will have forgotten. I see no reason for getting one.
Sorry for the couple of spelling errors, folks.
Yes, I meant “excercising power in an arbitrary way.” For your claim that you are focused more on form than function is a hollow one.
If you examine the urbanist agenda, the objection to the drive-thru and parking lot next-to-the- street form is largely based not on the form itself but on the function of such a form i.e. making the premises convenient for cars/inconvenient for bikers and walkers.
Forms of buildings are not value neutral.
[REPLY Building form can be neutral from the inside use but in my urbanist perspective the form is completely tied to the function/use of the public space — that which exists between the buildings.
Creating a walkable public realm does connect the public function with the physical form but does not get into making value judgements about the specific uses within the private spaces (well, less so). The logic behind the physical form for a pedestrian friendly commercial street is hardly arbitrary. – SLP]
It’s not that your logic behind a pedestrian-friendly street is arbitrary. What is arbitrary is your belief in allowing taste to dictate community standards in one case (McDonalds) and not another (tattoo shops).
Second, I don’t know how you can refer to the space between buildings as “public space”. It is public space only in the sense that it can be seen by the public. As you know, such space is privately owned and it should be left to the owner to use it as they see fit.
If you want to legislate certain things based on your taste, you should be prepared for others to try to legislate based on theirs. That is a bad situation because what happens is that the taste of those who are in power governs, despite the wished of those in the minority.
[REPLY – I have no desire to regulate taste. McDonald’s can have a drive-thru all they want. However, they just cannot have a curb cut into the public pedestrian space.
And yes, I am quite aware the space behind the property line is private. But determining the public realm will hopefully eliminate space between buildings by requiring, for example, two story facades facing the main commercial street. No gaps. Utility access from the alley. Put your McDonald’s in a storefront right next to the tattoo studio. Just don’t put up a single story building with excessive parking and a drive-thru — McDonald’s, Taco Bell, KFC, Panera, Starbucks — I don’t care what. The form should be urban so as to create a continuous pedestrian friendly environment. Hardly arbitrary. – SLP]
“One would be no parking between the public sidewalk and the front of the building. That alone would make new construction more urban.” . . . Does that include scooters?!
[REPLY – This was intended as a statement on no parking lots so that buildings were pushed up to the building line rather than set back. But, ideally the on-street parking would include motorcycle/scooter parking (with a lockup ability). On the sidewalk would be bicycle parking. – SLP]
I’d like to see more arcades in St. Louis, honestly.
Hiya Steve…
I was browsing for information about when DSL will be available to me here in the city, and I ran across your post… small world eh?
p.s. I still have a picture of me putting that tattoo on your leg at TRX. http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k249/ylem666/stv.jpg
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