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Submitted
A green vine tattoo runs up the side of Natalie
McCollum's body. Staff photo by Chris Griffith
Women get tattoos to make a statement
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By Amelia Robinson,
Staff Writer
Updated 7:46 PM Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Karen Coppersmith of Dayton could not wait to turn 18. That’s when a dream was realized.
A tattoo of Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury holding a mike high was inked on her butt.
“I’d been planning it out since I was 16,” said Coppersmith, now 21.
The loyal Queen fan thinks of her skin as a canvas.
Four years and nine tattoos after Mercury first made his big splash on her backside, Coppersmith is well on her way to filling said canvas.
A partly neon-colored sleeve of tattoos nearly covers one arm, and much of Coppersmith’s chest is covered in a passage from Psalm (“Guide me with thy truth”). A bright red heart runs toward her cleavage that reads, “Father, my heart is ready.”
The Northmont High School grad is among a growing number of women in their 20s and 30s sporting tattoos — in many cases, big and bold.
Michelle Flaum, a doctor of education in the University of Dayton’s counselor education department, has noted the trend.
The largest segment of society is still relatively conservative when it comes to tattoos, but women are seeking bigger tattoos and are feeling more comfortable exposing the smaller ones, Flaum said.
“(Women with tattoos are saying) ‘I am going to express myself, and I am not going to worry about how anyone else perceives it,’ ” Flaum said. “The need in their life to express themselves supersedes that need to fit in (with social norms).”
Tattoos are more common than you may think.
Results of a 2008 national Harris Interactive poll of 2,302 adults indicate that 32 percent of those ages 25-29 and 25 percent of those age 30 to 39 have at least one tattoo. Twelve percent of those ages 40 to 49 had ink.
Flaum said many use tattoos to mark times of transition or things important to them.
Danielle Harlow of Dayton said her tattoos express her longing to fly like a bird and love of fall. Vibrantly colored fall leaves and birds cover one of her arms.
The 25-year-old pastry chef at Pacchia restaurant plans to work with her tattoo artist to even more work done. She said the larger tattoo trend seems to be more popular in Dayton than in other places. Her tattoos barely get a second look here.
Once thought of as strictly masculine, tattoos have become an expression of empowerment for many women, she said.
“I should be able to do whatever a man can do,” said Harlow, who sports a cupcake behind her ears.
Fifteen percent of men had tattoos compared to 13 percent of women, according to the 2008 Harris Poll.
More people aren’t necessarily getting tattoos, but more tattoos are larger and more people are willing to show them off, said Evan Butler, a tattoo artist with Glenn Scott Tattoo Team in Dayton’s Oregon Historic District.
He said women still primarily seek smaller tattoos — butterflies, flowers, baby footprints etc. — but as social norms have changed and tattoos have became more popular among female celebrities, he has seen a marked increase in female clients seeking larger, showier tattoos.
The notoriety of tattoo reality shows and female tattoo artists like Kat Von D haven’t hurt matters, he said, adding that he’s fine with the shift.
“I like cute tattoo girls,” he said.
His girlfriend, 24-year-old Jessica Benson of Dayton, has several tattoos, including one of her 3-year-old son Conor’s astrological constellation.
‘‘I just really like astronomy,” Benson said. “He’s just the most important thing in my life.”
Tribute tattoos, those featuring family members or friends, are extremely popular, area tattoo artists say.
Katie Reigelsperger of Dayton, Coppersmith’s best friend, plans to add a tattoo of Athena to her collection to honor her mother and grandmother.
Her upper right arm is already covered tattoos of autumn leaves, her grandpa Bair’s sailboat and a pudgy bird, a symbol of her favorite band, Bayside.
“My mom and grandma are really strong women. They been through a lot,” Reigelsperger said, noting that the new tattoo will feature flowers found in her grandma’s garden.
Since Freddie Mercury, Coppersmith, a tattoo girl if there ever was one, has gotten much ink, including a nearly completed sleeve of tattoos on one arm featuring an image of Coppersmith as a child of age 6 or 7 combing her grandma’s hair.
“She always let me play in her hair. She always encouraged me,” the Beavercreek hairdresser said, noting that all of her tattoos mark significant people or events in her life.
There are scissors on the back of her head, a portrait of her father as a boy on horseback on her arm and a rather playful pink unicorn near one wrist making chocolate chips and rainbows.
Coppersmith said the thought represented in that involves magical things.
Like 84 percent of those who responded to the Harris Poll, Coppersmith said she doesn’t regret her tattoos. And she said she won’t regret them when she gets older. “I’ll be happy. I’ll look back at them and remember who I am,” she said, adding that she’s often asked what’s she going to do when she’s a grandma.
“I don’t think I am going to pull down my pants and show my grandchildren my Freddie Mercury tattoo,” she responds.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2384 ?or arobinson@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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I swear it's like one person just trying to provoke us under different names, there's no way people keep bringing this up.
3:16 PM, 7/2/2009
7:52 AM, 7/2/2009
that is my response
3:30 AM, 7/2/2009
8:51 PM, 7/1/2009
11:18 AM, 7/1/2009