Tattoo fans see reason to smile through painful bouts of rib ink

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Tattoo fans see reason to smile through painful bouts of rib ink
October 4, 2011
By Douglas Brown
The Denver Post

Just as tattoos migrated from the arms of sailors and bikers to the calves of accountants, they also found purchase on a novel patch of skin: the lower backs of women.

The so-called "tramp stamp" went viral in the 2000s, with college business majors, soccer moms and retirees decorating themselves with butterflies, baby names and angel wings.

The popularity of the tat location, however, has fluttered away.

Its replacement? The rib cage. Some are calling it "the skank flank." Everyone agrees inking there hurts.

"We are joking about it now," said blogger and tattoo evangelist Marisa Kakoulas, who taps out the popular website needlesandsins.com from her New York home.

But the anatomical preference is "emerging," she said. "We are scratching our heads because it is so painful."

Once largely reserved for ink veterans who could ride out the agony, the rib cage has become prime real estate — for men and women. "It's the hottest place on the body right now," said Ryan Hewell, owner of Big Easy Tattoo and Piercing in Broomfield.

Don't look for little hearts or four-leaf clovers, the kind of tats plastered on biceps. The people inking their long, wide rib cages want murals — cherry blossom trees, dragons and, instead of single roses, entire bouquets.

Whatever the impetus — anxiety, sexiness — Kakoulas champions the rib-cage tattoo, calling the location a dramatic, flowing canvas, one of the body's most visually interesting spots for a tattoo.

Interesting, sure. Buy why so much pain?

"It may be because the size of the tattoo is bigger. All tattooing after five to 10 minutes is more painful," said University of Colorado School of Medicine professor Theresa Pacheco.

Over time, she said, a "pain threshold" is reached, and something that was manageable turns increasingly tough.

Another possibility: the region's paucity
Tattoo artist Greg Fuller works on the rib cage of Stevi Gonzales. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)
of soft-tissue structures such as fat and muscle.

"The mechanical injuries from tattooing are directly over the bone of the ribs," said Pacheco, who teaches in the dermatology department. "It would be like bumping your knee against a hard surface versus falling on your bum. It hurts more to bump the knee."

The pain is so bad it even stops tattoo devotees such as J.D. Markwardt, a tattoo artist at Surfbilly Tattoo in Broomfield. Markwardt, a giant of a guy with lots of tattoos, has taken a stab at getting his ribs inked. The result is nothing to flaunt.

"I have an unfinished octopus on my ribs," he said. "I couldn't sit through it."

But Markwardt is no Stevi Gonzales.

She never even grimaced during her three hours of recent rib-cage needling at Hewell's tattoo parlor.

The Louisville health-and-wellness consultant lay on her side the whole time — talking with her partner Sarah Marvel and listening to music — as tattoo artist Greg Fuller emblazoned her left side with a gnarled tree, all roots and branches with orange and reds for the canopy. As he worked, he continually wiped blood from her torso.

"I wanted to get something I would work with that would relate to my family and my adoption," said Gonzales, 23. "I thought this would be a picture of my life."

The family tree was not her first tattoo. Scrawled across her collarbone: "Hope — To hope is to risk pain"; across the top of her back: "Pain — Pain is weakness leaving the body." She had the words inscribed on her skin two years ago, after a bad car accident.

Those tattoos stand for something real, as does the new tree rising up her torso. It symbolizes "something permanent in my life that would represent my birth and adopted families."

Like most rib tattoos, the permanent tree won't come cheap. At Big Easy, tattoo artists charge $150 an hour, said Hewell. Most rib work takes three hours or more, unless the recipient wants something very small.

Why the ribs? Gonzales saw the location on others and liked the size and shape of the skin canvas.

Plus, it looks good.

Which, in the end, probably explains the popularity of the rib-cage tattoo better than anything else. That elaborate mountain scene rising up the torso delivers swagger rights.

"On Facebook, it's all of these young people in bikinis and bras," said Kakoulas, "showing off their rib tattoos."