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(Photo: Clockwise from top left: Courtesy of Mike Rubendall; Getty Images; Courtesy of Paul Booth; Courtesy of Mike Rubendall [2]; Jordan Strauss/Wire Image; Cat Gwynn/Corbis; Mark Allan/Wire Image; Corbis; Courtesy of Mike Rubendall; Alamy) |
Getting a tattoo lost shock value a long time ago, even in the presumably conservative mainstream. Now it seems everybody’s got a significant, permanent memento somewhere�a butterfly, Tweety Bird, a bar code. What’s different is how blatant they’ve become. Discreet, hideable designs are passé; arm-filling artwork in glorious Technicolor is becoming commonplace, even for people who don’t take the L train. And with the arrival of easy-to-erase ink, changing your mind is painless.
- The New Erasables
- Ink developments mean never having to say �Oops.�
- Tattoo Timeline
- The evolution of the tattoo.
- What to Expect When Getting a Tattoo
- Plus how much will it hurt?
- How to Get Rid of It
- The effective, yet still painful, erasing capabilities of Q-switched lasers.
- The City's Top Inkers
- Five needle geniuses.
- Where to Walk In
- The many talented and responsible walk-in shops.
- Temporary Tattoos
- If you just want to test-drive, there are more-sophisticated alternatives than press-ons.