By GABRIELLE LIPTON
There’s
a joke among tattoo artists that whenever Rihanna gets a new tattoo,
droves of 20-something women will soon come asking for the same.
A few years ago, the singer adorned the upper portion of her left ear with the outline of a star. Not many came asking then, but, in what seems to have been a self-fulfilling prophecy, more are now.
“Anytime there’s a condensed spot, where one little tattoo makes the whole spot look filled up, that’s where the trends come from,” said Brad Stevens, a tattoo artist at New York Adorned in Manhattan, who said he tries to dissuade many people from getting visible tattoos, sometimes dissuading them altogether.
Although the space confines of the ears demand simplicity in design, ears frame the face, making them bold choices for ink placement. Some ear tattoos, such as the two Grape-Nut-sized stars that model Cara Delevingne got on the front of her right ear, look like piercings from a distance. But others, such as the spider web that fills the entire top portion of the model Catherine McNeil’s right ear, take a certain stylish gusto to pull off.
“I saw it in a fashion magazine, actually,” said Keely Kuykendall, 31, a costumer for TV and film productions who got a spider web on her left ear in 2012 after seeing Ms. McNeil’s. “My ear is so big that mine ended up being way more of a statement piece. But I totally copied her.”
As Ms. Kuykendall discovered from her experience, the ear anatomically differs drastically among people. The top part of the ear has the most tattoo-able surface area, composed of the scapha (the flat part near the outer flap at the top) and the crus of the antihelix (the raised ridge closer to the middle). Scaphas that flow into unprotrusive cruras make for ideal canvases. Smaller, highly ridged ears are hardly tattoo-able at all.
The ear holds ink differently than other parts of the body do; without fat or muscle tissue, ink is more likely to fall out of the thin skin. To prevent this, tattoo artists etch the ink deeper, which runs the risk of having it dissipate beneath the skin and create a shadowy halo effect called “blowing out.” Dainty, clean lines aren’t an option (look at the blurry “Love” on Miley Cyrus’s right ear).
That said, the smallness of the space could be said to lend it a delicacy, even a mystique. The ear is a known erogenous zone. Those with hair long enough can conceal and reveal it as occasion demands.
“Here in New York, people want something that’s more different or makes them feel extraordinary in some way,” said John Raftery, a tattoo artist at Fun City Tattoo on St. Marks Place, who has a line of dots on both of his scaphas. “We ask the person if they’re going to get fired, but I try not to get too caught up in the thought process behind someone getting something, just whether it will work or not.”
A certain class of tattoo artists and collectors maintain a sense of decorum that, until other parts of the body are heavily covered or completely filled, highly visible spots should be left un-inked. It is a mind-set born out of respect for tattoos’ permanence that, left unconsidered, can breed future regret.
Ms. Kuykendall, who plans to never work at a job with a dress code, said her decision to get her web was simply because she wanted it, and she isn’t concerned with how it will look in 50 years. Ms. McNeil, who is 24, said that though she had wanted an ear tattoo for a while, the choice of such a prominent design was impulsive and has yet to affect her modeling career.
“That’s not necessarily something people tell you directly when you attend a casting,” she wrote in an email. “Plus, retouching and makeup are both so advanced these days that you can never tell in the end anyway.”
And if either woman’s tattoo ages poorly, they can always just let down their hair.
Source: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/fashion/Tattoo-ideas-ear-tattoos.html?referrer=
A few years ago, the singer adorned the upper portion of her left ear with the outline of a star. Not many came asking then, but, in what seems to have been a self-fulfilling prophecy, more are now.
“Anytime there’s a condensed spot, where one little tattoo makes the whole spot look filled up, that’s where the trends come from,” said Brad Stevens, a tattoo artist at New York Adorned in Manhattan, who said he tries to dissuade many people from getting visible tattoos, sometimes dissuading them altogether.
Although the space confines of the ears demand simplicity in design, ears frame the face, making them bold choices for ink placement. Some ear tattoos, such as the two Grape-Nut-sized stars that model Cara Delevingne got on the front of her right ear, look like piercings from a distance. But others, such as the spider web that fills the entire top portion of the model Catherine McNeil’s right ear, take a certain stylish gusto to pull off.
“I saw it in a fashion magazine, actually,” said Keely Kuykendall, 31, a costumer for TV and film productions who got a spider web on her left ear in 2012 after seeing Ms. McNeil’s. “My ear is so big that mine ended up being way more of a statement piece. But I totally copied her.”
As Ms. Kuykendall discovered from her experience, the ear anatomically differs drastically among people. The top part of the ear has the most tattoo-able surface area, composed of the scapha (the flat part near the outer flap at the top) and the crus of the antihelix (the raised ridge closer to the middle). Scaphas that flow into unprotrusive cruras make for ideal canvases. Smaller, highly ridged ears are hardly tattoo-able at all.
The ear holds ink differently than other parts of the body do; without fat or muscle tissue, ink is more likely to fall out of the thin skin. To prevent this, tattoo artists etch the ink deeper, which runs the risk of having it dissipate beneath the skin and create a shadowy halo effect called “blowing out.” Dainty, clean lines aren’t an option (look at the blurry “Love” on Miley Cyrus’s right ear).
That said, the smallness of the space could be said to lend it a delicacy, even a mystique. The ear is a known erogenous zone. Those with hair long enough can conceal and reveal it as occasion demands.
“Here in New York, people want something that’s more different or makes them feel extraordinary in some way,” said John Raftery, a tattoo artist at Fun City Tattoo on St. Marks Place, who has a line of dots on both of his scaphas. “We ask the person if they’re going to get fired, but I try not to get too caught up in the thought process behind someone getting something, just whether it will work or not.”
A certain class of tattoo artists and collectors maintain a sense of decorum that, until other parts of the body are heavily covered or completely filled, highly visible spots should be left un-inked. It is a mind-set born out of respect for tattoos’ permanence that, left unconsidered, can breed future regret.
Ms. Kuykendall, who plans to never work at a job with a dress code, said her decision to get her web was simply because she wanted it, and she isn’t concerned with how it will look in 50 years. Ms. McNeil, who is 24, said that though she had wanted an ear tattoo for a while, the choice of such a prominent design was impulsive and has yet to affect her modeling career.
“That’s not necessarily something people tell you directly when you attend a casting,” she wrote in an email. “Plus, retouching and makeup are both so advanced these days that you can never tell in the end anyway.”
And if either woman’s tattoo ages poorly, they can always just let down their hair.
Source: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/fashion/Tattoo-ideas-ear-tattoos.html?referrer=
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