There's something going on around here.... Fashion and the 'finer' sex have finally pushed the ancient art form of ink into the mainstream. Fashion has it's very own circle of life and many trends are started by our inner rebel without a cause. We take something that is taboo and spread it through the masses like religion on crack.
Tans were once considered a sign of a commoner. Someone who toiled in the fields whilst rich fair maidens perched under umbrellas (Most likely held by one of those tanned folk). I would like to think this concept was crushed by the dissolution of the classes but unfortunately it seems the rich fair maidens had just decided to rebel. The cause for trading the umbrella for a banana lounge occurred in 1923 when Miss Coco Chanel was spotted leaving a nobleman's yacht with a deep suntan. She had spent her summer cruising to Cannes and really who didn't want to look like they had spent the summer cruising the Côte d'Azur. Coco later claimed to have stayed out in the sun too long but it was too late. A trend was born and black became the new black.
Cultures across the ages have embraced tattoos using them as a form of marking milestones and body decoration and yet western society again thought it a practice for the exotic and the commoner. The stigma only began to dissolve when again the fashion pack started jumping on the needle in the noughties.
They have now become a fashion accessory, a statement, an extension of who we are. Trend's in tattooing are even as fluid as fashion in the high street. With the most recent trend for sleeves in the style of presenter Ruby Rose or my favourite beehived mess Amy Winehouse or smaller symbols and script à la Erin Wasson and Rihanna scattered across the body. From wrists to ribs anyone who is anyone is getting inked titt for tatt.
