People embellish their bodies with tattoos as a form of expression
By: Aliya Karimjee
Different mediums are available to create art; its canvas can even be someone’s body. This form of body art allows people with various stories to express themselves through tattoos.
Interested in traditional Thai tattoos, the owner of Bamboo Tattoo Studio, Todd Santos, travelled to Thailand and immediately immersed himself in this cultural art form.
Bamboo tattooing involves using a needle attached to a bamboo stick and tapping into the skin. Celebrities like Angelina Jolie popularized this method of tattooing when she received a traditional Sak Yant tattoo. Jolie’s tattoo allowed Mr. Santos to introduce this technique in North America.
Santos emphasizes the different meanings tattoos can have for each person. Culturally, warriors originally got Sak Yant Thai tattoos for protection.
These traditional Thai pieces “have good luck charms for good health,” said Santos.
Pepsi, a bamboo tattoo artist known as @yant_lucky on Instagram, projects good intentions with his tattoos by putting a gold flake on it, which the monks pray on for months before sending it to Canada.
Pepsi hand-carves all bamboo shoots with handmade needles, creating a more “authentic natural experience,” said Santos.
Similarly, in Indigenous culture, tattoo art is a sacred ritual meant to protect, heal and symbolizes heritage and tribe.
But in 1885, the Canadian government banned Indigenous tattoos via the Potlatch Ban, one of the many policies of assimilation that worked to separate Indigenous Peoples from their rituals.
The potlatch’s communal economic exchange and the ceremony had a symbolic importance the settler Canadian government failed to understand.
And despite the ban’s repeal in 1951, the damage to traditional Indigenous cultural markers and identities was irreversible.
But for many, tattoos have evolved from their former negative reputation.
In the 1960s to 1980s, people were under the impression that tattoos needed a “bad boy feel and look to it,” said Santos.
Our world and the community have historically villanized tattoos. Since then, times have changed and tattoos are becoming socially accepted, encouraged and revered in many communities. Today, people use tattoos to express themselves.
“It doesn’t have the same stigma that it once had around it,” said Santos.
Beyond cultural significance, tattoos can also function as fashion statements. Youth today believes that anyone should be able to get a tattoo, whether it is meaningful or not.
“Tattoos to me are like accessories,” said Jessica Rowe, a fourth-year TMU child and youth care student. “If you have one on your wrist, it’s kind of like a bracelet.”
Similarly, creative industries student Katie Poon, got a fashion statement sun and moon design her friend drew, deriving joy and meaning from the experience.
Others, like Abisha Varath, a third-year business management student, got a meaningful tattoo of her Tamil culture–the Om symbol.
Bamboo Tattoo has helped hundreds of customers “create lasting and beautiful imagery on their bodies” to help people feel beautiful.
Santos’ studio does various realism tattoos and complex designs with the help of “regular” tattoo machinery and bamboo tattooing.
Santos has high hopes for the future of tattoos.
“I’m one of the OG shops, so I’m setting the benchmark for the tattoo industry,” he said.
Santos wants to create a fun experience for customers with this luxury tattoo parlour.
He takes his love for Marvel and art by transforming a forty-foot tour bus into a luxury tattoo parlour filled with slides and Marvel wallpaper.
Santos adds that he will “hopefully be rolling up to Drake’s party” when his upcoming luxury tattoo bus is ready to roll.
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