Monday, January 5, 2009

The illustrated women

Tattooing has long been a man's world, but that's starting to change

"How are you doing there, Margi?" Sharon Bradbury, a tattoo artist at LightWave Tattoos in Saugus, asks Margi Priddy, who's lying on her side with her eyes closed and her skirt hiked up. The tattooing machine hums like a dentist's drill as Bradbury traces the outline of three roses and one rose bud that she's adding to a tattoo that covers the side of Priddy's left thigh.

Priddy, a 52-year-old Revere resident who works at a financial company, had in June begun the process of getting this, her second tattoo. It took a month for Bradbury to design the combination of a sword, dragon, phoenix, and flowers that Priddy wanted. Now, once a month, Bradbury works on Priddy's tattoo for up to three hours. The experience for Priddy is a bit different from four years ago, when a man did her first tattoo on her lower back.

"[He] was very chatty and nice," says Priddy. "But Sharon and I talk about girly things: her family, my family, the intricacies of family."

Bradbury is one of a growing number of women making their way into the predominantly male world of tattoos. Some of the interest is generated by the general mainstreaming of tattoos. They're no longer solely the realm of sailors and bikers. Reality shows such as "LA Ink" and "Miami Ink" feature female tattoo artists such as Kat Von D.

Boston Globe - Full Story

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