It’s like walking around with a photobook, only much cooler.”Ĭhad compares tattoos to an art collection. So, it also represents people that I love. I have friendship pieces with a ton of people. “And another thing is, a lot of my tattoos are friend-oriented. And that’s where that piece comes from.”ĭawn says she didn’t know how much the tattoo had helped her heal until it was done, because after getting it, she says she had her first week of sleep following three years of constant sleepwalking and night terrors. So, I had Chad, basically, do a three-hour session. It was traumatic to see a scar every day. "I was in an abusive relationship for a short time, and the guy gave me a head injury. But for one of her most personal ones, she let Chad draw it entirely by freehand before tattooing. Most often, tattoo artists use computer-printed stencils as guides for tattoos. She’s been a client of Chad’s for over 10 years. “It’s comforting to see things that give you hope more so than scars," says Dawn Tarjeft. He has a giant black box on his chest now.”Ĭredit JOHN BEAUFAIT Dawn Tarjeft's space flower tattoo covered scars from an abusive relationship.Īnd some people with difficult pasts use tattoos to help cover-up painful memories. It was so solid black, there was nothing I could do other than just box it off. And, she knew about the tattoo, she knew about his history, and there was nothing I could do. “And he was getting married that next weekend to a lovely, young Jewish girl. I think that he may’ve had to make the choice to wear those ‘colors,’ as we call it, in prison to survive.”īut, it was no longer a life he wanted to be a part of, so, he had Chad cover it up. "We don’t have to deal with that stuff out here. “That’s a thing in the prison culture that," says Chad. One customer of Chad’s had spent time in prison, and during that time, he joined the Aryan Brotherhood and had a giant swastika tattooed on his chest. “Yeah, cover-ups are… that’s a big thing,” says Chad.Īnd not just ex-lovers names, or tattoos that people don’t like anymore - but tattoos with gang affiliations or racist meanings. However, sometimes a tattoo says too much, or maybe it doesn’t mean what it used to, or, it’s a part of someone that they want to leave behind - so, they get a new tattoo over the one they want to forget. My tattoos are really pretty positive, but, the fact that I have them says, ‘I’m going to do what I want, and you have zero say in that.’” “When I was a kid, it was like a permanent middle finger to everybody and everything. When Chad was a kid he used to draw on his hands and clothes - his tattoos are essentially an extension of that, a way to set himself apart from others. “I have a full back piece, both arms are heavily tattooed, my hands are tattooed, my neck’s tattooed, my head under all this long hair is tattooed, legs, and calves, and feet, and.everything has a tattoo on it.” Custom Tattoos in Dayton’s Fire Blocks District, and has hundreds of hours worth of tattoos on his own body. I don’t have anything that’s a throw away silly thing,” says Chad Wells, the artist doing the tattoo. "Every tattoo that I have has some sort of connection or meaning, for the most part. WYSO Michael Chad Grabeman's tattoo combines Star Wars and Grateful Dead imagery.
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