Tattoo's and piercings (colored, medium, roots, look)
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Tattoos in modern history will always be linked to the streets of Los Angeles and Mexican gangs. The style and the way they designed their patterns are all over the world. Kat Von D really was one of the pioneers in bringing this fashion to the rest of America.
That style was what really made tattoos popular in America. Its a pity that so many people have them now without knowing how much violence that style created. I never got a tattoo for the fact that growing up out here it was considered a degenerate gang member thing.
Think about it no other region outside of LA and Japan and Islanders even have a tattoo style. New York and Chicago and the rest of the nations didnt even get into it until the 2000s. For those of us from LA this trend will always be linked to street gangs and the bikers those cholos tattooed.
Even today with so many different things designed the "gangster" Los Angeles Mexican style and the Japanese style are the real undercurrents of it all.
Totally agree, especially here in So Cal....when the cashier at Ralph's can have 3/4 sleeve, sorta takes the 'bad' image away... LOL
I have a tattoo that while I don't actively regret getting it, it was a stupid-drank-too-much with my buddies type thing. It's on my upper arm and is smallish, so I can conceal it easily.
I had a pierced ear, but that was back when I was late teens/early 20's the hole has been closed up for 20 yrs now.....
So... not sure where that puts me in the poll.......
SOCAL reignited tattoos for the modern world. It started with gangs and the way theydrew and tattooed eachother, than those hispanic bangers started tattooing bikers in California and than Tupac and other rappers came and got tattooed by these bangers and the world loved it.
When I see it today I still feel a pang of disgust. In the early 1980s the only people to have tattoos were those whom had been in prison and those in gangs. Mainly chicanos, or those white trapped in that lifestyle as well.
Out here in SOCAL , youll see gang members with tattoos on their heads, eye lids and cheeks. Than I go into Billabong to get a shirt and I see the same writing, lettering and patterns that gangsters graffiti in the barrio. Its pathetic and a glamorization of gang life, if they only knew what Polo and Tommy Hilifiger were actually selling.
For instance, the Dogtown skateboards logo. Taken directly from the logo of the Dogtown gang, a gang that has killed dozens, has been charged by the FBI many times, yet here is their very symbol on skateboards and shirts. Glamorizing gang culture.
Yep, the claddagh that I got after studying in Ireland? TOTAL homage to Chicano thug life.
As a 36-year old, softspoken, nerdy bookworm teacher in the Midwest, I live to glorify west coast gang culture with my sartorial choices. You got me.
BET A $1000 its gang related......shows how much you know! IF IT IS DONE IN :
Black and grey
With a needle of #3 or thinner it is chicano and gang related. Which accounts for probably 50% of all modern tattoos, if its done in color with needle #5 or higher it is Japanese which accounts for 50% of all modern tattoos.
Thats the style I am talking about. Thats the style that created all styles. Never seen before outside of Los Angeles anywhere in the world. The intricate detail on skin, first done by convicts in America. Primarily in the prisons of California. Than brought mainstream by dudes like Ed Hardy, Jack Rudy and others, once America and the world saw this style thats when tattoos became popular.
SHOW ME : South American styles? African styles? Canadian styles? Austrailian or Polish or Jewish style tattoos ? Southern Styles? Mid West Styles? Before 1970. Tattooing was RARE in the modern world.
Before 1970 ONLY gangs had tattoos for the last few hundred years. Only gangs primarily and carnies. But they never had the intricate detail and shading techniques that were developed in the American gulag. By Mexicans in America. Once this style hit the street , needles used to pierce skin were copied from the way prison art was done.
Needles were filed down on cell floors to make a fine point able to do intricate detail on skin. This is an American thing, primarily a Mexican gang thing. Which is why SO MUCH OF IT is either gang related YUKUZA style or gang related MEXICAN style.
Now those getting tattoos now are incorportaing all types of stuff, but the shading, the method is an American Convict thing.
Yep, the claddagh that I got after studying in Ireland? TOTAL homage to Chicano thug life.
As a 36-year old, softspoken, nerdy bookworm teacher in the Midwest, I live to glorify west coast gang culture with my sartorial choices. You got me.
No its simple a mimic and a copy of a method first created by gang members in the Southwest. Whats funny is that a nerdy, bookworm and sartorial teacher WOULD GET A TATTOO.
Apparently even those outside of the thug life feel the need to join the revolution? You can NEVER make fun of thug life while sporting a tattoo done today because ALL OF IT IS GANG RELATED.
From the methods Russian criminals used to the method Yukuza and Chicano gang members used.
Adan you are an idiot. Many other groups have had tattoos - it has been a huge part of millitary lifestyle since as far back as you can go. It is a part of rock culture going back a long ways, before rap ever adopted it. There are many groups who are not "gangs" where this art form came from.
In fact, I bet if you traced it back, here in America gangs themselves would have gotten the tendency to tattoo from ex-millitary members who came home and started or joined biker gangs and other such underground groups.
If you want to say that it is counter-cultural in its roots, that might be true for much of the world (this would not be true in the islands, where it is a deeply ingrained part of their culture for example). But the junk you are spewing here is ridiculous.
No its simple a mimic and a copy of a method first created by gang members in the Southwest. Whats funny is that a nerdy, bookworm and sartorial teacher WOULD GET A TATTOO.
Funny, the NUMBER ONE reason I thought it would be fun to get one was because it was and is unexpected.
Quote:
Apparently even those outside of the thug life feel the need to join the revolution? You can NEVER make fun of thug life while sporting a tattoo done today because ALL OF IT IS GANG RELATED.
From the methods Russian criminals used to the method Yukuza and Chicano gang members used.
Primitive societies have been tattooing for centuries. Various Native American tribes historically have engaged in tattooing. Greatest Generation military veterans were getting inked during WWII. Don Ed Hardy (a Midwesterner by birth, as a point of interest) didn't invent it. Gang members didn't invent it. You are seriously uninformed.
I and my Irish tattoo will gladly accept your $1,000 via PayPal, though.
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