If you get a facial tatoo, you need to accept you may not be able to have a normal job again

Earlier this year, 18-year-old Kimberley Vlaminck emerged from her local tattoo studio in Belgium with 56 black stars cascading down her left cheek. She claimed she’d only asked for three, and that the tattooist had mistakenly inked the others on her face as she slept. Kimberley later admitted the truth – that she had asked for 56 – but her tale illustrates how popular inked icons such as Kat Von D, who has a constellation tattooed around her left eye, are influencing a generation who aren’t afraid to put their face under the needle.

ABOUT FACE

Facial tattoos always make a statement, but people get them for different reasons. Pineapple Tangaroa, a 27-year-old from Austin, Texas, was influenced by his heritage as his grandfather had received a tã moko tattoo on his face as a youngster – a marking associated with the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand. From a young age Pineapple wondered what it’d be like to have his own ink, but his first tattoo was far from Maori; instead, it was an image of much importance to a typical American boy…

“When I was 12, I paid a drunk hobo to help me find a tattooist who’d ink underage clients,” he says. “And I got a really bad Thundercats logo on my leg!”

The tattoo gave Pineapple the bug, and he began a quest to have his face marked for life. “Two years ago, I had the design marked out through scarification first, just as my grandfather did. Then the tattoo went over the top to frame the scars,” he explains. “It took five weeks to complete and when I saw the finished piece, I nearly broke down – it was fantastic.”

Two years later, Pineapple is still happy with his design, but emphasises he did 10 years of research before having it. “Kids who jump into something like this don’t realise how it’ll affect their life,” he says. “Recently, someone approached me in a store to ask why I hated myself so much that I did this to my body. I’m lucky – my wife and stepkids love me for who I am. Getting my face tattooed was the best decision I’ve ever made.”

MARKS ON YOUR MUG

Angel Morris, 33, from Louisiana, was also interested in tattoos from a young age. She soaked up body art culture by spending most of her youth hanging around a tattoo studio in Seattle. After getting a blue rose inked on her arm, Angel – who now works as a body modification artist – then got her chest, legs and neck inked, and finally had her entire forehead covered with a distinctive jaguar print design. She’d studied the animal’s fur pattern and worked on designs with tattooist Juan Ezparza for five years before she took the plunge.

“The jaguar is a graceful and mysterious creature, and those qualities inspired me to choose this design,” she explains. “I knew it wouldn’t be socially acceptable to get my face inked. People have made fun of me to my face, and I tend to get negative comments in big cities – but I’m strong. I can handle being different.”

Another lady who isn’t afraid to be different is 21-year-old Parker Griffin from Texas (top, right). She had a simple black circle inked around her left eye after doodling the design on her face first. “I drew it on my face with a biro and left it for about two weeks to see how I felt about having it 24/7,” she says. “I said to myself, ‘Am I prepared to live under a bridge and eat squirrels to have this facial tattoo?’ My answer was, ‘yes!’”

But she’s faced shocked, and sometimes aggressive, reactions from others. “One girl tried to start a fight with me in a bar by calling me Fido. I just said ‘Arf!’” she laughs. “But I’ve thought about covering it up sometimes, because my folks gets embarrassed. They’re hesitant to let me see extended family.”

Bizarre reader Alex Hilpert (above, centre) was turned on to tatts after watching his favourite TV show, The X Files. While admiring the jigsaw-patterned full body suit of The Enigma in one episode, he was inspired to imitate it. “I started a jigsaw tattoo from my toes up to my neck soon after,” he says.

Alex finally gave up his face to the needle at a Borneo tattoo convention in 1997, and went for a tribal design. Originally from Switzerland, Alex now lives in Wolverhampton, where he feels there’s less prejudice. “The Swiss mentality is that only crooks, criminals and scum of the earth have tattoos,” he says. “But on the plus side, you always get a seat on the bus!”

Alex has learned the hard way that reactions to his facial tattoos differ from culture to culture. “I went to Turkey, and within two hours of arriving I was beaten up by seven guys,” he says. “They have strict views on tattoos over there and thought I was taking the piss. They wanted to teach me a lesson.”

ON THE JOB

As well as facing the potential disapproval of family, friends and people on the street, Parker says there’s another reason to think before you ink. “A lot of tattoo artists feel secure in their careers and are happy to look freaky,” she says. “But most people need to accept they may not be able to have a normal job again.” Angel agrees: “Be prepared to be self-employed or work in a field that won’t judge you.”

This is exactly what Earl Kaufmann – now known as The Scary Guy – has done. He had his arms and torso tattooed in the 1990s. His marriage failed soon after, and when his work colleagues saw his ink, they gave him the cold shoulder. But he thought he’d found his place in the world when he flipped a finger up at corporate America, swapped his suit for leathers and a bike, and set up a tattoo studio in Tucson, Arizona.

“When I was a salesman, I’d been careful not to tattoo beyond my shirt collar and sleeves,” he says. “But after becoming a tattooist I began getting my face inked. I thought this was who I was going to be for the rest of my life.”

Earl had a wake-up call after a fellow tattooist ran an ad in a local paper calling him ‘a scary guy with war paint facial tattoos’. “I thought the tattoo industry was a place I’d be loved and accepted,” says Earl. “But I was wrong.” So, at 43, he officially changed his name to The Scary Guy, and hit the road to give talks and lectures on acceptance and challenging prejudices. He’s worked with thousands of people in schools, prisons, social care and businesses all over the world. His facial tattoos play a massive part in his mission.

“The way I look means I get to hold the attention of 200 open-jawed 16-year olds for an hour. With horrific events like the Columbine school shootings, I have to be able to reach as many kids as possible and challenge them to change their behaviour. My facial tattoos are the perfect vehicle to get that message across.”

And even if you’re working in a field that’s sympathetic to ink, you may still be unprepared for the physical act of getting a facial tattoo. Fire eater and razor blade-muncher Insectavora (right) thrills the crowds at Brooklyn’s Coney Island, but recalls the strange experience of going under the needle. “Getting my eyelids inked was weird!” she says. “You can’t tattoo on the soft part, so they stretched my lid over my cheekbone. My eyeball kept drying out and the vibration of the tattoo machine was making my eyeball rattle around in the socket – it’s the strangest thing I’ve ever felt!”

CLOSE TO THE EDGE

However, despite the defiantly positive attitudes of the people on these pages, some academic studies have made a link between people with tattoos and higher suicide rates. A study by Dirk Dhossche in 2000 concluded that tattoos were a possible marker of risk for young people, and another study in 2006 by researchers at Fordham University, New York, found a higher incidence of attempted suicide among tattooed modders.

Psychologist Dr Stuart Ross began studying people with ink after he counselled his tattooist, a man named Ian, who later committed suicide. “Ian was a close friend of mine who had 95 per cent tattoo coverage, including some on his face,” he says. “Three days after he’d finished my tattoo, Ian hung himself.”

Dr Ross has a theory about the correlation between those with facial tattoos and high suicide rates – though admits the link is anecdotal, and difficult to statistically verify.

“I’ve known many people with facial tattoos,” he says. “A few of them were tattooists who, like Ian, have taken their own lives. I’m not certain that getting a facial tattoo could influence someone’s decision to commit suicide. But it could be argued that someone who does so would have the type of personality that engages in risky behaviour and has low levels of the chemical serotonin, that regulates impulsivity and is linked to suicide. The impulsivity that goes along with getting tattoos may also be linked to the tendency to end it all without working through the wider consequences.”

Stories like these are a wake-up call to those who want to cover their face in ink. “I psyched myself up for about 10 years,” says Alex. “But even then I still wondered if I’d wake up and think, ‘What the fuck have I done?’ You’ve got to be so sure. Every day people make comments about me behind my back.”

But for Parker, the decision to mark her face permanently has only made her stronger. “It’s made me more secure in myself,” she says. “When I’m 80, I’ll be in a nursing home just like you – but I’ll have more visitors because I’ll be the cool old lady with the tattooed face!”

See more of The Scary Guy at www.thescaryguy.com