New Hampshire resident Dotty Jenkins doesn't mind the stares. Her hairless scalp is covered with an intricate, colorful web of tattooed images, including flowers, butterflies, and a striking pair of eyes, literally in the back of her head.
Jenkins started her tattoo collection because she has alopecia universalis, a condition that resulted in the loss of all the hair on her body several years ago. She recently won first prize in a tattoo contest sponsored by Salem's Peabody Essex Museum, in conjunction with "Body Politics," its exhibition on traditional Maori tattooing, or moko.
Just as Jenkins's tattoos are her way of reclaiming pride in her appearance, the Maori of New Zealand have been reclaiming their cultural heritage with their return to traditional face painting. Yet in America, where tattooing has become so commonplace that Angelina Jolie's latest ink grabs almost as much attention as her latest adoption, tattoos above the neck remain a topic of controversy, even among hardcore aficionados.
The parts of the body that are hardest to cover - the face and hands - are effectively "the final frontier" in tattooing, says Dave Kimelberg, a heavily tattooed corporate lawyer in Boston who has an ongoing photography project, INKED Inc., that documents fellow professionals and their hidden tattoos.
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