Lansing-area Tattoo Artists Take Their Work Seriously

Posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 11:03 pm

Lansing State Journal
Sept. 2009- Life Section Cover

By Tricia Bobeda

Tattoo artist Perry Stratton works a stormy scene for a pirate ship on Mike Michelle's forearm at Splash of Color in East Lansing. Michelle and Stratton have worked on the tattoo in pieces over the last few years. Photo by Tricia Bobeda

Dan Blanchard lifted the sleeve of his T-shirt to show off where his new tattoo would go.

“It’s surrealism,” Blanchard said about the artwork he chose. “It’s a continuation of something I already have.”

Blanchard, a Grand Rapids chef, waited patiently in the lobby at Splash of Color in East Lansing for tattoo artist Sean Peters.

He pulled out three folded sketches where he’d highlighted the images he liked best.

Blanchard wants the artist to freehand draw the images on his skin, not just trace them. The finished tattoo will cover his right arm from shoulder to elbow, known as a half sleeve.

“He’s going to eyeball it,” Blanchard said. “I trust him.”
Peters did all the tattoos for Blanchard’s father. His sister. His stepmom.

“I got my first tattoo with him,” Blanchard said. “I’ve always gone to him. He does good work.”
Blanchard said he’s ready for a more visible tattoo.

“For a long time I didn’t want to get anything that would show if I wore a T-shirt. I’m a chef, I’ve been a chef for 10 years. I’ve realized that at this point so I’m not afraid to show some tattoos.”

Then why stop at the half sleeve?

“I get burned a lot and I don’t want to ruin it,” he said. “It’s expensive artwork.”

Lost Tiger Tattoos owner Doc Dutton said the rise of available information online and popularity of reality television shows like TLC’s “Miami Ink” are creating more customers like Blanchard, who walk through the doors with high expectations of the tattoo artist’s abilities.

“It’s a continual gradual change. In the last few years people have gotten more educated, and with the TV shows, it’s made them realize there’s more to it than they thought.”

Splash of Color owner Kris Lachance said tattoo and piercing is still a spontaneous choice for many, but compared to a decade ago, clients have higher expectations for the art – and the cleanliness of the shop.

“Before we just had – as an industry – a negative stigma. You expected it to be smoky and some dude working on his Harley in the lobby with three pit bulls running around.”

The health and safety of her clients is Lachance’s top priority.

Sean Peters begins the process of freehand drawing a tattoo on Dan Blanchard. Four shades of Sharpie marker are used to define the shapes, then he'll get out the real permanent ink. Photo by Tricia Bobeda

“You can’t be too clean,” she said. “You can’t put a price on health and safety – every client that walks through the door is literally saying here’s my life, I am trusting you with it because you are breaking the integrity of my skin.”

Lachance is the vice president of Health Educators Inc., a company that trains inspectors and practitioners in the body modification industry about keeping a sterile work environment. She teaches about bloodborne pathogens, cross contamination and infection control.

“If I’m teaching it and preaching it across the industry, we have to be practicing it here,” she said.

Lachance wants to stop unsafe tattooing out of homes. She even lobbied for state legislation on the topic.

“You’re not going to go to a doctor or a dentist at their house,” she said. “You want it to be in a professional environment.”

Dutton says Lost Tiger Tattoos gets applications from people whose experience tattooing took place in an unregulated environment.

“A lot of people that come in looking for a job have been working in their basements,” Dutton said. “They have a lot of bad habits.”

Lachance said as tattooing gradually becomes less taboo, more artists with formal training are entering the field. In the past, tattoo artists were taught how to tattoo, but didn’t always have formal art training.

“Now it’s becoming more accepted as a profession and respected,” Lachance said. “People who weren’t able to utilize their artistic ability before in a paying job (work as tattoo artists).”

Blanchard knew asking Peters to freehand his tattoo would mean it took longer than if he traced an image onto the skin, but both thought it was worth the extra time and effort.

Freehanding doesn’t mean Peters grabs the machine and ink on the first try. He sketches the images in yellow Sharpie first to get a sense of where things will fit. He’ll do this three more times, each time with a darker colored Sharpie. Once he has a crisp set of lines and Blanchard gives it a thumbs-up, Peters will start with the needle and real permanent ink.

“I like freehanding because it feels more like we’re creating it together,” Peters said. He said at least 80 percent of the tattoos he draws are freehand.

Watching the artists in her shop work still amazes Lachance.

“I never cease to be amazed when people come in and say ‘I want this’, and it’s just an idea,” she said. “It’s creating something from nothing. That’s the ultimate definition of art. That’s what these guys do every day.”