Word: tattoo
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...creatively pierced, multiply tattooed teenagers who hang out at every mall in America probably don't realize it--and neither, undoubtedly, do their unsettled parents--but they belong to a tradition as old as recorded history--probably much older. Ever since our Neolithic ancestors invented art tens of thousands of years ago, humans have been painting, sculpting and otherwise decorating everything in sight. The human body is just the nearest and most intimate canvas. Says anthropologist Enid Schildkrout of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City: "There is no known culture in which people do not paint...
When our children are babies, we spend hours gazing at their perfect bodies and stroking, admiring and sniffing their fabulously pure skin. We worry endlessly about every rash, scrape and sunburn, never dreaming that one day they might want to pay a guy named Bucky to pierce or tattoo that very skin. Yet increasingly they do. Tattooing and piercing, once the preference of biker chicks and sailors on shore leave, are attracting ever younger recruits. Chances are that someday soon your 12-year-old--the same kid who cried real tears over getting a booster shot at her last annual...
...family colorfully illustrates both ends of the tattoo age spectrum. At 77, my Uncle Harvey sports several, including, on his left forearm, a schooner that arrived there during World War II. Harvey is sheepish about his tattoos, describing them as "stupid mistakes." On the other hand, my 20-year-old stepcousin Aaron will proudly roll up his T-shirt sleeve to show his right arm, covered from shoulder to elbow with his initials surrounded by a design that resembles Victorian wallpaper. An intricately tattooed Yoda from Star Wars sagely sits on his left calf. Aaron describes his body...
Some parents don't mind tattoos. I know a mother and teenage daughter who went to a studio recently to get matching ankle designs. Parents who don't approve, however, are now getting some help from laws in 30 states that prohibit studios from tattooing minors without parental consent. Nineteen ban under-age piercing. The American Academy of Dermatology urges that artists be trained, regulated and licensed in precautions having to do with "sanitation, sterilization, cutaneous anatomy, infections, universal body-fluid precautions, biologic waste disposal, and wound care." Tattoos, the ADA reminds us, are permanent. Removing them? It really hurts...
...cousin Aaron--he of the wallpaper tattoos--concurs. Aaron, who was tattooed after he turned 18, said, "When I think of some of the dumb stuff I wanted to do when I was 15, I'm glad someone stopped me." (But even wise Aaron clearly can't imagine any drawbacks to his future as a 40-year-old man with a Yoda tattoo.) Ron Stiehl, the proprietor of my local piercing and tattoo parlor, says that for kids who want to try out a tattoo, artists can apply henna designs, which last about three weeks...