Kansas State University - Royal Purple Yearbook (Manhattan, KS)

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FINISHING A TATTOO, Robert Miller, Stray Cat tattoo artist, puts the last touches on Aaron Snyder ' s full-chest skull- Miller, who had been working as a Stray Cat tattoo artist for seven years, said he was always fascinated by tattoos. I always saw people with a lot of toos when I was little, Miller said. It had a profound effect on me. — Photo by Jenny Braniff

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SIKAYCAI !At wo and Body Piercing customer Aaron Snyder displays his body art. He received his first tattoo at age 16. ' Your body isa temple, you might as well rate: Snyder said. — Photo by Jenny Braniff creating pieces of art using skin as a medium, tattoo artists reveal the workings of their craft by Lindsey Imes GROWING UP, Robert Miller, award-winning tattoo artist, knew he wanted to be a master of the art that intrigued him. He said he drewon himself with markers, fascinated with the skin-and-ink combination. Inspired by his uncle, a tattoo artist, Miller received his first tattoo at 13. At 27, he had acquired tattoos over most of his upper body. He had tattooed most of his left arm himself and created many original designs. I draw a lot of my own, custom work right on people ' s skin, Miller said. I like doing portraits of people. I can reproduce an actual photograph on the skin. As testament to his claim, a print of Marilyn Monroe hung on the parlor wall among hundreds of other designs. Beside Monroe hung a picture of the identical image — on a woman ' s thigh. Miller said he ' d tattooed just about every body part. I ' ve gotten some odd (requests), but who ' s to say what ' s odd? Miller said. If you can imagine any area on the body where there ' s skin, I ' ve pretty much tattooed it. The more difficult areas to tattoo were the lower back, stomach and breasts said Chris Tessin, a tattooist at Fine Line Tattoo. Kevin Watke, another tattoo artist at Stray Cat Tattoo and Body Piercing, said common designs were Old English and Japanese writing, flowers, suns, butterflies and tribal images. They also had requests for names. Usually, when it ' s a name, it ' s regretted, Tassin said. Every week, we cover up names. Watke said customer anxiety caused some problems. I do a lot of hard tattoos: he said, but mainly they ' re hard because people won ' t sit still for them. Though the idea of getting a tattoo could be frightening, Miller said the process was not terrible. Peoplewill tell you that they hurt a lot to make themselves look tougher for having them, Miller said. I compare it to being scratched by a mechanical pencil. I think stories about getting tattoos are actually worse than getting tattoos. It ' s really not as bad as most people say it is. 16 I Student Life

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18 Student Life