How to Catch a Butterfly at a Ventura Boulevard Tattoo Shop

So you’re feeling anonymous, a cog in the machine, a brick in the wall, a bit player in life’s epic movie.

You want to do something showing you are an individual, an original thinker, a wolf in a city of 3 million sheep.

You want to get a tattoo.

Well, before you get that skull, rose or bare-breasted woman forever stamped on your hide like a brand on a horse, you should learn a bit about the topic.

One way is to spend an evening at a tattoo shop and talk to the regulars. Try, for example, the colorful clientele at Studio City Tattoo. The owner, who goes by just one name, Rockwood, is a chatty fellow who doesn’t mind entertaining stupid questions about tattoos.

He runs a pretty clean shop on Ventura Boulevard where classic rock music plays on a boombox while potential customers mill around, looking at hundreds of tattoo designs posted on the walls.

Like the old-fashioned barber shop, the conversation is spirited and honest. On a typical night the topics range from sex to sports to tattoos to sex.

And there is no body part too private to be tattooed. If you choose to decorate a part of the body usually hidden by a bathing suit, you go into the “Butt Room” where very pale flesh becomes an artist’s canvas in complete privacy.

But before you get indelible ink injected into your skin, you should know some facts and myths about tattoos.

Here is a test:

True or false: Tattoos are only for beer-guzzling, bearded bikers who get their kicks stepping on baby kittens.

False. Just ask Jason, a young, clean-cut salesman for a medical supply company, who wears a tie, penny loafers and a beeper to work. He walked into Studio City Tattoo on a recent Friday night to persuade his musician friend Steven to get a tattoo. Jason already has two tattoos, both dragons. He says he grew up wanting a tattoo because his father is covered with them.

And then there is Gabby, an aspiring young model who strolled in with her sister and a couple of guys to select her fourth tattoo. Gabby already sported three small roses--one on her ankle, one on her shoulder and one on a body part in between.

Oddly enough, Gabby said her 50-year-old mother started her off by insisting that she and her two daughters do something fun together before the mother got too old. So they all got tattoos. Gabby’s mother, who manages a bookstore, got a small bookworm on her shoulder.

“I didn’t want one, but then I saw my mom getting one,” Gabby said. She said she changed her tune after that and was soon planning to get more. “It’s the ‘90s, it’s not just for gangbangers and bikers anymore,” she said.

True or false: Most people get tattoos when they are completely pickled.

False. Rockwood said he refuses to tattoo drunks, not because they will regret it once they sober up, but because drunks won’t sit long enough for the tattooing process.

“Drunks are very difficult people to deal with on any level unless you are drunk with them,” he said.

True or false: Getting a tattoo is painful.

True. The apparatus that sinks the ink into your epidermis zips seven tiny pins in and out of your skin like a sewing machine. And, yes, that hurts.

The expression on Slick Rik’s face as he got a feathered circle around his ankle said it all. Slick Rik, as he calls himself, is one of the tattoo artists at Studio City Tattoo. He is a big guy, probably over 200 pounds, with a goatee, earrings on both ears and a nose ring. Slick Rik already has several tattoos, but getting the latest brought a grimace to his face.

“You never get used to this,” he said, as small drops of blood formed around the pins dancing into his skin.

Faith, a petite young blond with a big smile, agreed with Slick Rik. She was visiting with her friend, Barbi, who wanted a few roses on her backside.

About three months ago, Faith got a string of roses around her ankle, and it was an experience she said she will never forget.

“The pain was so excruciating,” she said. “I will never do it again.”

True or false: You can get AIDS from tattoo needles.

True, because infected blood can be transferred by the needle to another customer. But so far there is no documented case of anyone contracting HIV from tattoo needles, according to AIDS Project LA.

Rockwood said he takes so many precautions--such as sterilizing his equipment twice in an autoclave before each tattoo--that he believes his tools are more sanitary than those used in a doctor’s office.

True or false: Tattoos are a fad perpetuated by heavy metal bands on MTV.

False. Rockwood says that based on his 13 years experience, the biggest influence is a friend or relative who already has one.

Most often it is not a tattooed celebrity like Cher or Axl Rose but a parent, such as Gabby’s mom or Jason’s father, that is the key influence, he said.

“Basically, it’s not a popularity thing. Socially, it is just becoming more acceptable.”

So, now you have some of the basic information and you are ready to ponder the question: “To tattoo or not to tattoo.”

But remember: Since it appears your decision will influence generations to come, do you want a family tree with clean bark or with a few markings?