{"id":679,"date":"2009-06-11T17:09:43","date_gmt":"2009-06-12T00:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/06\/seven_reasons_not_to_get_a_tat\/"},"modified":"2009-06-11T17:09:43","modified_gmt":"2009-06-12T00:09:43","slug":"seven_reasons_not_to_get_a_tat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/06\/seven_reasons_not_to_get_a_tat.html","title":{"rendered":"Seven reasons not to get a tattoo &#8211; tattoos when they meant something"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>Marking Portland: The Art of Tattoo<\/i> opens June 20 at the <a href=\"http:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/\">Portland Art Museum<\/a>. Anybody who lives in Portland with a tattoo or got one there could take a picture of it and be considered for inclusion. Because chief curator Bruce Guenther is himself solidly inked, I posted an advance <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/05\/coming-to-the-portland-art-mus.html\">here<\/a>. (How many times do we get to look a semi-nude, buffed-out curator?)<\/p>\n<p>Now that frat boys think nothing of covering their forearms in morning glories, however, tattoos don&#8217;t necessarily have the edge they once did, which makes the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nwfilm.org\/\">Northwest Film Center<\/a>&#8216;s contributions vital. <\/p>\n<p>On June 21, the center will screen <i>A Scarred History of Great Britain<\/i>; July 25, <i>Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry<\/i>, and Aug. 20 <i>The Mark of Cain<\/i>, tattoos from the Russian Gulag. <\/p>\n<p>About Sailor Jerry. Not a lovable old salt. Here&#8217;s his list of <i>7 Reasons Not To Get A Tattoo<\/i>, via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.made-in-england.org\/reasons-for-not-getting-a-tattoo\/\">Cookie<\/a>, which hung in Jerry&#8217;s parlor. We can quibble over which is most offensive. (I&#8217;m going with #3. ) But for taking a trip down memory lane with a pure product of old-time, outcast America, his movie can&#8217;t be beat.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"sailorjerry1.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/sailorjerry1.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;\" width=\"450\" height=\"349\" \/><\/span>&nbsp;A few years ago in New York, riding the bus back downtown from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.studiomuseum.org\/\">Studio Museum Harlem<\/a>, I found myself sharing a seat with a lean wolf of a white guy. <\/p>\n<p>Three permanent tears ran down his face, which I believe could have alluded to an unfortunate encounter in prison. His white shirt rolled up with a package of cigarettes in a sleeve revealed a text: <i>Born to Lose<\/i>.The song hung in my mind and surfaced a couple of blocks later. Yes, I broke into unconscious song. <\/p>\n<p>Suffice to say he was not amused. I was happy he didn&#8217;t belt me, as the don&#8217;t-hit-a-woman rule seldom applies in his circles. Later that night, tucked up in bed, I realized that the oddest person on the bus that day had a press pass. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marking Portland: The Art of Tattoo opens June 20 at the Portland Art Museum. Anybody who lives in Portland with a tattoo or got one there could take a picture of it and be considered for inclusion. Because chief curator Bruce Guenther is himself solidly inked, I posted an advance here. (How many times do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}