Skinetic Art

The Venerable Art of tattooing has, over the history of fashion, been either fanatically in or unspeakably out. Skin decor was part of the religious rites of the Chinese, Mayans, Egyptians and other ancient cultures; the Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament, on the other hand, solemnly inveighed against it. Captain Cook brought "tatu" styles to the West from Polynesia in the 18th Century, and within 100 years everybody in Europe, from society belles to the Prince of Wales, was undergoing the needle. There followed another cycle of obloquy; grandma believed that only carnival performers and drunken sailors got tattooed. Today, the tattoo parlor is moving back uptown and pretty girls are adding epidermal embellishments. Some, not fully committed to the idea of virtually indelible adornment, choose to explore the body-paint or decal route. Herewith, a well-rounded sampling.