PORTLAND'S INKED CITIZENS

Suddenly everyone seems to have a tattoo in Portland, Oregon, writes Jessica Machado. Even the art museum is using skin art to lure in visitors ...

Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE

In Portland, Oregon, "tramp stamps" are frowned upon. Back-wide murals and 20 hours of needle-pricking pain are not.

“Ten years ago, no one had a tattoo bigger than the size of a playing card,” says Jeff Johnson, an 18-year veteran of tattoo artistry and co-owner of Sea Tramp in Portland. “Now, people walk into the shop and want a full sleeve for their first piece.”

The city’s sincerity about body ink is exemplified in “Marking Portland: The Art of Tattoo”, a new summer-long skin-art extravaganza at the Portland Art Museum. Tattoo artists seeking institutional validation for their chosen medium should note: the museum has carefully marketed this show as an “experience”, rather than an exhibition. It is meant to pay homage to the popularity of tattoos, not to recognise them as fine art.

“Economically, the stars lined up,” explains Rob Bearden, the museum's director of operations. He notes that board members and curators dismissed the idea for years before giving it the green light in the midst of a recession. “Tattooing is out of control in Portland. We thought, ‘What particular audience might a show like this attract and have we connected with that audience?’”

Until now they hadn’t. Bearden says the hole in their demographic was males under 40, a large sector of which has gone under the needle in Portland. When the museum asked tattoo-wielding Portlanders to submit photos to their Flickr site, several of which would be chosen for display, they received more than 500 submissions within the first few weeks. Since opening on June 20th, the show has already become one of the most popular summer attractions in the museum’s recent history.

On July 25th, thousands showed up for the museum’s “Skinvisible” exposition, featuring tattoo demonstrations and a show of "tattooed fire dancers, inked burlesque stars, an illustrated magician, and an adorned contortionist" strutting a runway. For the museum's more conventional visitors, the expo offered a genteel glimpse at a supposedly seamy lifestyle. “Seeing tattoos in an established art environment is more appealing to those that have always been curious [about the work], but don’t have access to discover what it’s all about,” says Bearden.

Yet such museum patrons need only to walk out their front doors to come forearm to forearm with intricate inked vines, flames and tribal markings. In Portland—home to a burgeoning class of creative nerds, such as techies, designers, craft brewers and culinary artisans—it is just as common to see neck tattoos peeking out from the shirt collars of advertising executives from Wieden + Kennedy as it is above the V-necks of indie musicians and baristas. Even the Portland Art Museum’s chief curator, Bruce Guenther, is inked.

“Only in Portland do you see entire families walking down the street with full sleeves [of tattoos],” says Jessica Helmke, manager of Infinity Tattoo in North Portland. At her shop, artists do only custom work—no “flash” off the walls, like butterflies and lotus flowers. More than half of her customers are working on long-term projects, such as elaborate pieces along the rib cage or the back that can take up to a dozen sittings and a year to complete.

“With the Internet, people are doing their research," Johnson explains. "People are planning for months what they want their tattoos to look like. Our product is something that people don’t mind throwing their disposable income into.”

“Marking Portland” runs through September 7th, with live models and demonstrations on weekends.

Picture credit: protectorrr (via Flickr)

(Jessica Machado is a writer and editor based in New York and Portland, Oregon, and a regular arts and culture contributor to the Oregonian.)