Tattoo Stories

Life has a funny way of knocking us all down, making it seem impossible to get back up. Luckily, the human spirit is stronger than disaster, able to withstand things we thought we weren’t capable of. For some of us, life marks its territory in our lives through physical scars. All with names. Dates. Places. Stories. A constant reminder of what’s happened to us through old, puckered skin. Scars aren’t pretty, no matter wha...

I had finally gotten my first tattoo, now it was time to begin research to have my half sleeve done .For the next 4 years I purchased and thoroughly read every tattoo magazine available, I made notes of the names I saw.In January of 1993 I was contacted by my attorney. He informed me that the State wished to close an old but still open accident injury case, and they were offering me a nice sum of money. Sans his fee, I st...

I had talked about it for years. Finally one spring day I made up my mind, it was time to get my first tattoo. Now way back then tattoo shops were not permitted in the city of Cleveland, so I had to travel a bit.I cannot recall how long I wandered between the rows of flash. Flash is what they call the pictures covering the walls in the lobby showing the ink work they can do, they range from tame to wild. I showed the arti...

Christy Sparks struggled against the urge to laugh, but knew she was losing. As Brother Silas, the venerable choir director, led the assembled multitude gathered inside the Faith of Our Fathers sanctuary into another verse of what was, at best, joyful noise, she gave up trying to keep a straight face and sought to hide her big grin behind an open hymnal. It proved a futile effort at avoiding the puzzled glances of her hus...

Denlea wasn’t the sort of town you’d expect to see a tattoo-come-body-piercing parlour, but there it stood. 'HIBISCUS - Body Art and Massage' shared a row of grey stone terraced buildings with a chip shop, a boutique for mature ladies, a hardware shop, a butcher’s and The Copper Kettle Café. Its neighbours had opposed the opening of the tattoo parlour, objecting to the type of clientele it might attract. Jimmy Marshall wa...