Tattoos are more popular every day. Take the New York City Tattoo Convention, for example. Year by year, ever so slowly, ticket sales began to diminish. Sure, there was always a good show, but not the crowds of yesteryear. But suddenly it changed. "It's crazy this time," reports photographer Richard Todd. "The aisles were jammed. I've never seen crowds like this."

I had a similar experience. In Philadelphia, there were not only lines a hundred yards long, but an entire second-floor clone of the main hall doubled the number of the previous year's artists. And all the artists were working. I saw very few tattooists sitting on their hands with nothing to do. Mostly, they were pushing ink or drawing flash.

In May, I was invited by the Baltimore Museum of Art, along with Lyle Tuttle, Jacci Gresham and Roni Zulu, to lead a symposium on the current trends in tattoo art within the African-American community. A symposium, mind you. A ninety-minute panel discussion in a three-hundred-and-fifty seat auditorium with tickets going for twenty dollars a pop. It was sold out.

And the same success has hit the shops. I don't talk with an artist anymore who isn't booked solid for at least the next three months. Most of the time, it's six months or a year. Artists who want to work seven days a week have full schedules. Those who want to work only four days or three are taking up oil painting or mountain climbing or surfing, whatever they want. Tattooing has allowed these ink gypsies to mold the kind of lifestyle others only dream about. And, most importantly, it's because of something artistic. Not stocks and bonds or real estate investments (although many tattooists nowadays know their way around an escrow). No, these are successful people who make art. I ask you, how many times in history has that happened? Check your local yellow pages. There are more tattoo shops than there are car dealerships or banks or supermarkets. Combined!

Some say it's because of the television shows. That sounds like a reasonable explanation. Others point to a resurgence of individuality. In an age when we are defined by our Social Security and bank account numbers, isn't it better to be known as the guy with a Bengal tiger on his forearm or the girl with Joan of Arc tattooed on her breastbone? Much more fun. And individual, too.

I, on the other hand, think it's something in the water. There's a special chemical-maybe even the excess tattoo ink that gets washed down the drain and leaches itself into the municipal water system-an unstoppable ingredient that gets into our drink and our food. It even permeates our laundry and is absorbed through our pores. We can't stop it. There's too much of it. Rogue ink. Rogue tattoo ink.

And you were worried about fluoride.

Bob Baxter
Editor in Chief

baxter@skin&ink.com
www.skinandink.com