TATTOO CULTURE ON WOFFORD’S CAMPUS—
A tree, a sunflower and a butterfly converge on junior Karen Gravely’s skin. Her tattoos are located on her ankle, her ribs and her back, respectively. Both the images depicted in her tattoos and their location on her body hold meaning to Gravely.
“Trees are the coolest things in the world: a tree is part of everything around it. It also houses an entire ecosystem. Butterflies are the most beautiful creatures, but they never know, and they can’t see their own wings,” says Gravely.
Her roommate, Heather Allen, bears an arrow on her forearm and a flower of life on her ribs.
“It’s a reminder to keep moving forward, to not stay in the past,” says Allen of the arrow. And of the flower of life, “It’s a symbol of sacred geometry that represents the interconnectivity of all things.”
“You are affected by everyone around you, and they affect you and you’re not alone,” says Allen.
For Bradley Tidwell, tattoos have always been a part of his life. Both of his parents have tattoos, and he uses the same tattoo artist as his parents did. Among his tattoos are a yin and yang symbol and images of fire and ice. To Tidwell, they represent balance.
To maintain his tattoos, Tidwell uses sunscreen to keep his skin from burning and his tattoo from fading.
“That’s basically what a tattoo is. A scar with ink in it,” says Tidwell.
Both Tyler Nelson and Lee Skinner have tattoos of their own design. Nelson wears a castle holding the universe and a brain. Skinner bears the words Life is What You Make It near a paper airplane. He denies any association with a similarly named Hannah Montana song.
“Growing up, I liked making paper airplanes. Life is what you make it, like an airplane. The more precise you make the folds, the better your airplane will fly,” says Skinner.
Skinner also has a crown with a saint’s symbol on the top, a wolf, a basketball and the Wofford W.
“I would never in a million years have thought that I would be here. Everything else leading up to where I am today, it’s unbelievable. The growth I’ve made here, the things I’ve learned outside of the classroom…I owe so much to Wofford,” says Skinner.
Skinner received his tattoos in four different states, including Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina and his home state of Illinois. Nelson received his first tattoo not in America, but in Germany. He feels that his tattoo is a reminder of his experience abroad, and the risk he took in getting his tattoo from someone who didn’t speak English.
On his custom designs, Nelson says, “You can’t look on the internet and find my tattoos anywhere.”
“I want to keep it that way,” he says, further explaining that he doesn’t photograph his tattoos.
Tidwell, Skinner and Allen all have visible tattoos on their arms. Tidwell says that he put his tattoos in such a visible location so that he could see them and enjoy them. Having performed research at the University of North Carolina and being accepted into a mentor program with The Space, he does not feel that the visibility of his tattoos has impacted his life in any negative way.
“I wanted a sleeve,” says Skinner. “I would just be a puzzle with missing pieces. It’s a story so far that I can tell.”
“I’ve never had a minute when I regret anything about them. It becomes a part of you and then you don’t realize that you have it all the time,” says Allen.
Allen advises that anyone who is looking to get a tattoo should be willing to research their artist thoroughly and spend money.
“Everyone’s got skin that looks like skin. I just think it’s cool that I can put art on there that stays forever. Life is too short to not accessorize your skin with art,” says Gravely.
