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COMMERCIAL EDITOR LARRY FUGATE — NO TO TATTOOS AND THE OTHER ‘BODY ART’ — SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 2006

Saturday, June 17, 2006 11:14 PM CDT

The attractive young woman wearing the brown low-rise pants and the short green top bent over to adjust one of her sandals about the time I walked into a Pine Bluff retail store.

I could hardly stare.

The 4-inch high red devil tattooed slightly below the small of her back was what caught my attention. Honest.

The devil was about 4-inches tall and had a crooked grin. He was holding a three-pronged trident or pitchfork.

She just didn’t look like the type to have a tattoo.

I am showing my age again. In my mind, only sailors who consumed too much rum or beer while on shore leave are to sport tattoos.

It is amazing what you can learn by reading a daily newspaper. Flipping through last Sunday’s edition of The Commercial, I spotted a headline that quoted a survey as saying tattoos are now firmly in the mainstream.

The “body art” is no longer the mark of sailors, bikers, carnival workers and prison inmates. It seems 36 percent of Americans age 18 to 29 now have at least one tattoo, according to the survey.

Twenty-four percent of Americans between 18 and 50 are tattooed. That’s one in four.

One tattoo artist was quoted as saying individuals without tattoos are quickly becoming “the unique ones.”

And, he added, body art is more than just tattoos.

That’s the really scary part.

It seems, according to the same survey, one in seven people surveyed indicated they have one or more body piercings other than in the soft lobe. That number rises to nearly one in three for the 18-to-29 set. Almost half in that age category had either a tattoo or piercing.

I don’t understand why body art is becoming so popular.

Perhaps, I need to explain and proclaim my age again.

I grew up on a farm with an older brother who was a Navy submarine veteran. Lots of his old Navy buddies visited the farm. Many of the veterans consumed intoxicants on a regular basis.

They all had tattoos. Most were of the standard variety — a ship’s anchor, a heart with a girl’s name or even a demonstration of their admiration of their mother — but no devils.

These tattooed veterans would not have been caught dead with body piercings. Body piercings were reserved for animals on the farm.

Now it’s a sign of rebellion or rite of passage, the survey indicated.

There is a big difference between piercings and tattoos. Another lesson learned on the farm: Piercings can be removed, but tattoos are a tad bit harder.

Dermatologists must love this fad.

One 21-year-old woman was quoted in the story as saying she had a pierced nose, tongue, belly button and ears. Just the thought is painful.

The young woman said she had suffered no side effects, other than the anger of her parents. I can relate to that.

While women, children and even men have worn earrings dating back to Biblical times, there is always the concern of infection.

If you face facts, you realize in our society ear piercing is considered a fashion statement. It’s popular among boys and girls, men and women.

Tattoos can be removed, but there are no guarantees. Dermatologists and tattoo removal experts are expensive.

One company recently announced plans to launch the first of two lines of “not-so-permanent tattoo inks” next year.

The ink “pigments would be encapsulated in a polymer and the microcapsules injected into the skin. A tattoo would be permanent only as long as its wearer wanted it to be.”

A laser would break open the capsules and release the ink into the body to be safely absorbed, explained a company official.

The second line would simply fade with time — like the paint on my wife’s van.

I’ll pass on the body art. The little devil looked better on the young woman than it would on my backside.