They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, but what about the canvas? Suppose we’re talking about the human body. In that case, any art placed on someone’s skin is instantly worth more than a thousand words because every person has experiences and insights that could never be adequately delved into with a meager 1000 words. When someone puts a tattoo on their body, they add to the canvas of experiences they already have. If you’re looking for some art to add to your physical canvas, you can’t go wrong with one of the many excellent tattoo parlors scattered around Buffalo Niagara!

Tattoos are highly prominent in today’s society. Getting tatted (as the kids say) is no longer reserved for shore-leave Navy men who love their mothers and hardened criminals with tattoos of flaming bald eagles tattooed on their foreheads. No – today, you’re more likely to see a young person with face tattoos or a big detailed, colorful sleeve than you would an older person. I don’t know why this shift happened, in all honesty. Maybe it’s because people have gotten progressively artsier through the years? Maybe people are a lot less afraid of needles than they used to be? It’s a mystery, but I’m nonetheless a part of it as well.

I got my tattoos at Tattoo Renaissance a few years ago. What struck me admittedly as soon as I walked through the door was the guy at the reception desk was drawing. It wasn’t some bored doodles of stick figures on a loose-leaf but an incredibly detailed work that, although the image in my mind has blurred over time, I can say with great confidence that it was a fine piece of art. I got my tattoo, two actually. I came back a second time because I found my first one of just a saying to be completely and utterly dull upon living with it for a while.

It was a great experience all told (sidestepping the fact that it’s very annoying when the ink of a new tattoo gets everywhere, so you pretty much have to put the body part with it in a sling for about a week, or you’ll have ink spots all over). The thing about the experience that still sticks with me to this day is the tattoo artist is just that – an artist, on the same level as anyone that paints with a brush, sprays with a can, or sculpts.

A tattoo is an investment, same as buying a fancy-schmancy piece at an art gallery or auction house (hopefully it costs less). The main difference being that the tattoo is alive as long as you are. So besides the price you pay when you’re first getting it, you decide how much it’s actually worth because it’s a part of you. People still tend to buy art from famous dead artists like it’s going out of style, but people are getting more body art than ever before. I’d like to believe this is due to society as a whole slowly getting away from holding old art on an incredibly high pedestal and instead putting more emphasis on themselves and the art “the people make.”

This may be a particularly optimistic viewpoint on the matter of garish rainbow dragons on ribs and drunken hand tattoos of Mickey Mouse you regret as soon as you wake up, but what can I say?

I’m a closeted optimist.

Tattoos are utterly mainstream at this point. You can see big-name stars like The Rock proudly showing off his ink wherever he goes. I’d bet even a lot of politicians have ink on them. (They just hide them under fancy suits along with all the other things they’re hiding). Tattoos have gone from something to be hidden and shown in secret to something akin to a badge of honor that begs to be shown.

Although they are very commonplace at this point, I’d like to believe that the majority of art on people’s bodies nowadays means something to them on some level. That the pieces they have on them are things they cherish and show with the utmost pride because I believe a tattoo should be a billboard that reflects some part of you. If it’s going to last forever, it might as well be of something you’ll believe in forever. So if you’re thinking of joining the proud members of the tatted, find a good spot, think of something good you want and go on and take the plunge.

Nothing lasts forever, but something that lasts as long as you do works just as well.