Last Friday, while I was working on my graffiti poster, I ended up having the opportunity to listen to Rich Stremme speak about his experience in the field of tattooing. I deeply enjoyed such a mini lecture, as I was able to learn more about a field that I rarely had contact with before.
There were a few things I enjoyed in particular. For example, his discussion about the history of tattooing and its evolution from a hidden niche arising from trans-Atlantic piracy (and other areas) to a burgeoning new field that has seen radical transformation, especially in New York, since its legalization in the 80s-90s. I also enjoyed his several personal anecdotes, especially how committed he seemed to be to the art of tattooing (based on his mentoring in Upstate NY by Pat, for which he had to drive several hours no doubt. It’s equally as interesting that he started much later in life, at the age of 35, as it’s not often for people to pick up new hobbies around that age.) He also hinted towards a clear divide in tattooing based on distinct styles (such as his preference for older\/more traditional forms, from what I remembers) and ways in which specific groups conduct themselves based on tattoos, such as Hells Angels. I wasn’t aware that tattooing formed such a fundamental part of their identity.
Overall, I probably won’t end up getting a tattoo, but I do appreciate Rich’s expertise in the field, and it’s clear he had a deep life-long passion for it.
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Last Friday, while I was working on my graffiti poster, I ended up having the opportunity to listen to Rich Stremme speak about his experience in the field of tattooing. I deeply enjoyed such a mini lecture, as I was able to learn more about a field that I rarely had contact with before. There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":509,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/french2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/french2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/french2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/french2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/french2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/french2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1137,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/french2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions\/1137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/french2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/french2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/french2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}