High Life / A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : Some Go for Indelible Impressions

ORANGE —  Tattooing, a practice dating back to ancient Egypt and its mummies, has evolved through the ages from an association with sailors and soldiers to fans of heavy metal music. Whether the tattoos are permanent or temporary, they have become popular marks of distinction among teen-agers.

“I’ve wanted a tattoo for a long time,” said Neal Jenulis, a senior at Orange High School. “When my friend offered to give me a tattoo, I took him up on the opportunity.”

He sports his tattoo--a skull--on his right upper arm.

“My parents say that I’m going to regret it when I’m older, but I don’t see it that way because I’m not looking at it through their eyes,” he said. “It’s a decision that I’ve made and that I will have to live with, not them.”

At the Twilight Fantasy Tattoo Shop in Anaheim, patrons must be at least 18 years old to get a tattoo. Simpler ones can be had for less than $50, but for the more intricate variety, the price may reach hundreds of dollars.

“It all depends on the size of the tattoo and what you are looking for,” said London Bellman, tattoo artist at Twilight Fantasy.

Bellman said the shop, which opened in 1983, has seen a recent growth in the popularity of tattoos. He said the most common are people’s names, skulls and black panthers.

“The age group that comes in varies,” Bellman said. “We get younger people and people on up to 60 who come back to cover up a tattoo that has become inappropriate for their age.”

With the advancement of technology, some of the factors to consider when deciding upon a tattoo are color, design and the intricacy of work.

“With the smaller needles we have now, we can use them for finer, more detailed work than we could have done before,” Bellman said.

Steve Rennie, a junior at Orange, decided to have a skull tattooed on his arm. Red-and-white coloring was added for emphasis.

“I paid $135 at a shop in Balboa,” Rennie said. “It was worth it, though, and I’d go back again to get my next one.”

Prices of tattoos may seem high for the average teen-ager, but the cost to remove one can be staggering.

“I wanted to keep my tattoo, but my parents made me remove it,” said Tristin Messersmith, a senior at Orange. Her tattoo, a 1/4-inch heart, cost $30 to have placed on her left index finger, but $600 to have removed by laser surgery.

“Tattoos are like symbols of who you are.” Messersmith said. “I see tattooing as a person’s choice, but it doesn’t mean to tattoo your entire body.”

But many who have tattoos find it difficult to stop at just one.

“Tattooing is addicting,” Bellman said. “Once they have one tattoo and it heals and the pain has gone away, many come back for more.”

Julie VanAcker, a senior at Orange, wears a gray-and-black butterfly tattoo on her back.

“I think that it’s your decision how many tattoos you should get or if you should even get one,” she said. “It’s not your parents or society who should decide if tattoos are right. It’s you that has to live with your decision.”

A popular alternative to the permanent tattoo--especially for some parents--is the temporary variety.

“I got a stick-on tattoo during the summer because I knew my parents wouldn’t let me get a real one and I wasn’t old enough to get one of my own,” said Kati Bye, a junior at Orange.

Stick-on tattoos, which are popular at fairs and amusement parts, last for several days. They are ink designs on transparent tissues that, when wet, can be transferred to the skin.

“You can’t really tell it is (temporary) unless you look at it up close,” Bye said. “Some people will give you strange looks because they think it’s real.”