Gone are the days when the sight of a tattoo leads to the conclusion that you’re a gang member or maybe a newly-released prison convict.
It’s now much more accepted, says Fabian Kobusinski of Wonderland Tattoo & Piercing Parlour on Mullingar’s Mary Street.
Fabian began tattooing his own body when he was 16 but began drawing on others about nine years ago. He says the idea of body art has changed dramatically during this time, although memorial tattoos are still very common.
“I think it has changed a lot. People before, they felt like their tattoo needed to mean something to them. Now it’s fashion, people don’t care as much about the meaning, it’s about the art.
“People do still come to get memorial tattoos after family or friends have died, we get this a lot. It’s hard. I remember one woman who came in and her young child had passed away, they feel like the person is always with them [with a tattoo] and it’s almost like therapy.”
