Celebrities probably play one of the largest roles in making tattoo mainstream. I’m not saying this because I think it’s particularly good or bad, it’s just a fact. The amount of times I’ve seen huge media reports about the brand new and oh so scandalous tattoos of Justin Beiber or Lady Gaga or Katy Perry are too many to mention. I know that you know what I mean and I wouldn’t blame any of you for being sick to death of it. It’s really gotten to the point where celebrities just get tattooed because they know the media will fawn all over them and let’s face it: if there’s one thing that celebrities love, it’s some serious me time.
Not all celebrities are out for the media frenzy of a tattoo, however. There are many actors, musicians, authors, etc, who have tattoos and for whom getting tattooed isn’t an excuse for a media frenzy. I personally like Jonah Hill’s quiet and understated heart tattoo on his forearm, the centre of which reads: “Nancy Rules”. This was done in memory of his deceased grandmother. Adam Goldberg is another celebrity who has a huge amount of very impressive tattoos, all of which were done by the legendary tattooist Mark Mahoney.
Like most people, I’m not immune to celebrity – there are plenty of actors whose work I enjoy and respect. I don’t know how many of them have tattoos, but I think it’s always kind of cool to imagine how people would look with tattoos, specifically with a lot of tattoos. Seattle based artist Cheyenne Randall seems to think so too. In addition to digitally altering photos of famous celebrities and therefore giving us a glimpse of these people with tattoos, Randall’s work also makes us think about how we view people when they are tattooed. Do these celebrities still seem like the same people to you when they are covered in tattoos? Why or why not?