Wearable art

Tattoo by Mathew Clarke of Midnight Moon Tattoo in Meredith. (Courtesy photo)

If it's been a decade or two since you've stepped into a tattoo parlor, you might be surprised by what you'll find inside today. Where the tattooer might have once been someone of limited talent and even less repute, he or she is now a bonafide artist. And their clients often see themselves as collectors of art that is worn on their skin.

Locally, tattoo artists welcome the tend as a chance to expand their creative skills and develop a devoted clientele.

Mike Weatherbee, who along with his wife, Jamie, owns Pair A Dice Tattoo, is a Laconia native who grew up in Franklin, which is where he was introduced to tattooing.

"I met a guy who was doing it, he took me under his wing," Weatherbee said. That was more 26 years ago. From there, Weatherbee moved to Seattle, then worked at times in Florida and New Mexico. He returned to Franklin 11 years ago to open his own shop, and last spring he and Jamie relocated to Weirs Beach. Pair A Dice is located on Lakeside Ave, and he said the new location has been great.

"We've definitely seen our business take off," he said.

Weatherbee was manning the shop by himself in what are usually the slow times of the year, but he still kept busy. In February, he did 75 tattoos, and 125 in March. He has since welcomed Devin Norton, an artist who has his own following, and the shop is now busy six days each week. He will be adding apprentices to handle the walk-in business for Laconia Motorcycle Week.

If last year's Motorcycle Week is any predictor, Pair A Dice artists will be busy until the wee hours of the morning, adorning clients with designs of their choosing, and often, of their own design.

Weatherbee has been in tattooing long enough to see a change in the kinds of tattoos people are looking for. It was common for a client to walk in the shop and flip through a portfolio of common tattoo designs – anchors, hearts with a scroll reading "Mom," or Yosemite Sam. But the tattoo game has changed, due to the influence of reality television.

There has always been talented tattoo artists, but the general public wasn't aware of the medium's possibility until television shows such as TLC's Miami Ink, and many other similar shows that its success inspired.

Now, although Pair A Dice has examples of artwork adorning about every available square inch of its interior walls, eight out of every ten customers come in with their own concept or design in mind. Often, the customer will be directed to a specific artist based on the concept. Norton has developed a style for animal mosaics, while Weatherbee prides himself on realistic, black and gray tattoos. His shop has also developed a specialty in cover-ups – tattoos designed to obscure another one that the client would like to sweep under the figurative rug.

In Meredith, Midnight Tattoo has been establishing its reputation since opened by Mat Clarke in 1993. When the industry changed, when customers stopped requesting Japanese symbols and lower back tattoos, Midnight Moon was in position to become the Lakes Region's premier studio for artistic tattoos.

Midnight Moon is owned by Mat and Michaela Clarke, employs three tattoo artists, an Michaela does piercings and body modifications. The shop recently moved from Main Street in Meredith to Route 25, next to Hannaford Supermarket.

Motorcycle Week isn't necessarily busier than usual at Midnight Moon, said Michaela, because the shop's artists are already booked for months, either by returning clients or new customers who know of the shop by reputation.

"We're usually booked up already before Bike Week hits," said Michaela. She said that the tattoo and piercing parlor is frequented by all types of people, from teenagers to elderly, and from all walks of life.

"It very much became mainstream," she said. "It's very commonplace to see a soccer mom with a tattoo or a piercing, it's very much accepted."

Michaela is one of the few piercing places in the area that will perform genital piercing, which she said is a significant part of her business.

"I do a lot of genital work on people you wouldn't expect to have genital piercings," she said. "I love piercings in general, the fact that I do genital work, it makes me feel good to help people look at their body and like what they see."

Whether its piercings or tattoos, Michaela sees the broader appeal as a result of people more willing to assert domain over their own physical being.

"I think people are taking control of their bodies, they're accepting that this is my body, this is my canvas... This is mine, I'm going to decorate it as I want."

Twenty years ago, she said, tattoo parlors were frequented by bikers and people who wanted to adopt trappings of the biker aesthetic. Michaela said, "Now, it's an art form, it's a wearable piece of art that people collect."

Mat and Michaela Clarke own of Midnight Moon in Meredith, where the appointment book is filled for months. (Laconia Daily Sun photo/Adam Drapcho)