Large portraits of tattoo icons Tatts Thomas and Ralph Johnstone watch over Nick Colella as he works.
"Both of those guys tattooed on the 400 block of South State Street where the Harold Washington Library is," said Colella, owner of Great Lakes Tattoo on Grand Avenue.
Tattoos go way back. The oldest known tattoos are on Ötzi the Iceman, a body preserved in the Alps for over 5,000 years. Tattooing was common in ancient Egypt and is found on mummies, mostly women, who often etched fertility signs onto their bodies.
Chicago is part of that history.
"Chicago plays a vital role in tattooing in the country," Colella said. "That area of State Street, you had all the sailors come from Great Lakes Naval Base. That's why this place is called Great Lakes Tattoo. You had this naval training base here where all these sailors in wartime came to train, then went down to State Street to see girls and get tattoos. All the arcades had tattooers. All the burlesque shows had tattooers. This stuff on the walls is all from those arcades."
The walls of Great Lakes Tattoo are jammed with framed selections of classic art: swooping eagles and beribboned daggers, grinning skulls and flaming hearts. Like any fashion, tattooing goes through phases. Polynesian tribal tattoos were popular in the 1990s, then strands of barbed wire on the upper arm.
But the snarling panthers and cheesecake ladies are always in style.
"That's pretty much what I do: traditional American tattooing," Colella said. "That's what Danni's doing: repainting in the same tradition they repainted 80 years ago."
Danni Nievera, at the next stall — 10 artists work at Great Lakes — carefully dabbed red onto a dragon on a sheet of paper.
"I'm just using gouache, adding color," she said.
I was not there to get tattooed — I have a hard enough time picking out a new pair of glasses — but to visit World Tattoo Gallery, a small exhibit space downstairs, and see a show of Tony Fitzpatrick's colorful paintings. Tony was heavily tattooed himself, and his art was influenced by tattoo art. Popping in, eyeballing his pictures, then leaving seemed a lost opportunity. So I asked to talk about tattooing while there.
Besides aesthetics, the old designs carry the spirit of their originators.
"I like tattooing off these old designs because that's what keeps those guys alive," Colella said. "That's what the history of it is. That's the tradition of it. I'm doing their designs in the current manner with better tools and nicer inks."
What does Nievera, 30, like about tattooing?
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| Danni Nievera |
I recall there were only two tattoo parlors (they were called parlors back then) in Chicago in 1973 when my friends and I decided we wanted tattoos. The place on State Street that you touched on in this post, Neil. All the service men did in fact go there. And also an establishment near the Belmont El stationed owned by a chap named Cliff Raven. (I remember his name.) We mustered up our courage one Saturday morning and rode the El there. About four of us if memory serves. But we learned Cliff Raven's shop didn't open until 11 a.m. We had an hour to kill. We wandered around the neighborhood discussing the tattoos we intended to have. We were all under 18. (Nobody checked ages back then.) I wanted to get the raffish snaggle toothed wolf with the bashed-in top hat on my right shoulder. Another guy wanted his girlfriend's name inside a heart. Yet another kid wanted a shamrock. Of course we all chickened out long before 11 a.m. We hemmed and hawed and kept walking east , and, as I recall, ate lunch at Ricky's (Mr. Ricky's?) at Belmont and Broadway and then skulked home. None of us ever got tattoos. I still think about having a tiny Crusader Rabbit added to my right shoulder. Or perhaps Garfield Goose.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid my dad had a tattoo of a dagger entwined with a snake on his forearm. I thought it was the most amazing thing in the world. He got it when he crossed the equator on an aircraft carrier in WWII. One day, as I admired the tattoo, he told me it was the biggest regret of life.I couldn't believe it. He asked me to imagine looking at the same fading picture on the same aging wall of the same deteriorating house every day for a lifetime. He had a point. I don't have a tattoo.
ReplyDeleteI got my first tattoo at a shop on Belmont Avenue for my 45th birthday. It's a largish lion face. I got my 12th tat last May.for my 80th birthday .. a wolf face. I may, or may not, be done. My artist is Rick at Ricasso Artworks in Blue Island. Some of my ink was featured in the Sun-Times tattoo column a year or so ago. Not just for sailors on leave any more.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, this hits home for me. My beautiful daughter has lived in the city for several years now. She is involved in the whole artsy vibe, and tattoos are apparently a big part of that. I never would have dreamed she would be covered in tattoos. A while back I saw her and her hand was tattooed. She told me it was henna, but surprise, it's permanent. It's the only thing about her that I just voice my judgy disapproval. She's a teacher and has a lot of ambition, but I just feel this look could hold her back. Then she tells me I'm from a different world (true), but I'm still always offering laser removal treatments. Although I had the unfortunate need to go to an emergency animal hospital in the city on Belmont Ave, and the nurse and Dr were both heavily tattooed, so maybe she's got a point. But I still can't imagine regret not setting in at some point
ReplyDelete12 tattoos over 35 years .. no regrets. (I'm 80)
DeleteYou are likely diminishing your relationship with your daughter for something that a) you will be unsuccessful at and b) is none of your business, regardless of how strong your opinion is about it. Is it worth it?
DeleteCarol V, I'd agree with you.
DeleteMy dad did his boot camp at Naval Station Great Lakes around 1955. I know he got a tattoo of "Mom" inside of a rose while he was in the navy. He was fond of saying a man's first girl is always his mom. When I came along it had faded to green, I am now recalling sitting in his lap looking at his tattoo when I was very little. I never asked him exactly where he got it, maybe Chicago? Your column brought back some very old memories. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteStill remember when the teenage daughter of one of my buddies announced she was getting a tattoo. He walked with her over to her closet and asked: "How many of these outfits are you going to want to wear in two years?" She decided against the tattoo.
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