Painted on the hill
Unabashed in their natural garb, these KU students show off their skin and their ink in this featured photo essay.
By Dani Hurst (Contact)
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
Video by Rachel Seymour
KU students talk about what inspired their personal graffiti.
I still remember the day my sister called to tell me she’d just gotten her tattoo. It was beautiful. Even the low-quality cell phone photo she sent me couldn’t mask the swallow’s bright colors and bold lines. She told me about her experience at the tattoo parlor and how the thing itched like hell. My heart was racing; not because I was excited for her (although I was), but because I feared the imminent encounter with our mother. I knew she’d be pissed.
My sister told my mother right after she told me, and all I can say is that she’s lucky there was a phone between them. There was yelling. There was a lot of yelling. My mother was angry because her daughter knew how negatively she viewed tattoos. My sister argued that it wasn’t meant as a personal offense, but that she’d wanted one for a long time and had finally gotten it done. My mother still disapproves. My sister still feels justified.
As for me, tattoos are exquisite works of art, but they’re not for me. It’s not that I’ve never wanted one, but I can’t imagine me on my sister’s side of the phone.
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