Telling stories with ink and skin
Telling stories with ink and skin
August 26, 2010
Dale Shrull
The Citizen Telegram
Rhonda Hunter doesn't believe in coloring inside the lines — philosophically speaking.
Now 50, the 1978 Rifle High School graduate's life has been filled with adventure, detours, side roads, main streets, family and motherhood.
She admits that it's been a satisfying trip so far.
And now, she can confidently say that she's comfortable in her own skin. And in that word “skin†is ink.
Today, she's a storyteller and her notebook is skin. She's a tattoo artist.
She became a tattooing apprenticeship at 46, so obviously she didn't take the traditional road to get to this point in her life.
“It's a little odd to have a 50-year-old doing tattooing,†she says with a laugh.
But age doesn't define much for Hunter. She opened her Rifle shop — Inkology — about two months ago. She wanted something a little different than your average tattoo shop, and that's by design.
“The defining science of combining art, ink and skin,†is her businesses tagline, she says.
Downstairs is the tattoo shop, upstairs will be an art gallery.
“I wanted to combine all different kinds of art. Sorta like a biology project. I didn't want to limit it to just tattooing,†she says.
She is a bit of an accidental tattoo artist.
It started when she took her sons Ross, now 26, and Kye, now 25, in to get tattoos a few years back.
“It then became like a quest or an obsession to start doing it,†she says.
Tattoos are about emotions, memories, special times and more, she explains.
Stories and moments of life. Hunter, whose maiden name is Thompson, loves telling stories with ink and skin.
She has 13 tattoos herself, and the one she points to as the most meaningful is the one on her left ankle. It has a puppy and cherry blossoms forming the tree of life. In that tree are the names of her sons.
That personal story on her ankle is like so any stories that she tattoos onto her clients.
A personal connection
The low humming of the tattoo gun fills the shop as 28-year-old Shane Slinger grimaces a little. The tribal band is his only tattoo.
“Hunter smiles, “Yes, tattooing hurts.â€
For Slinger, like most who decide to get a tattoo, it's about expressing individuality and expression.
For Hunter, it's the combination of art and connecting with people that fuels her love of tattooing.
She talks about her clients and their tattoos, remembering every tiny detail. The mother, the soldier, the daughter … They all have those special moments in life that they want to remember. And the tattoo is how they want to memorialize those chapters and moments of life.
“The more I got into tattooing, I realized that I was like the bartender. People would come in and tell me their problems,†she says.
Whether it's symbolic, spiritual, commemorative or something else, Hunter says that as the tattoo artist, a personal connection is important.
“That's what probably drives me more than anything, the part of helping people through certain challenges in their life,†she says.
It's her personal growth and personal healing following the end of a 19-year marriage that also helps her connect with her clients.
Her emotions break loose and jump outside the lines when she talks about some of the special tattoos she's done.
“There was a lady who got a memorial piece for her mother. It said ‘I love you Gammy,'†Hunter says, getting a little choked up at the memory. “I did it in her own handwriting that I copied off a greeting card of hers.â€
When the woman saw the tattoo in the mirror she broke down, and so did Hunter.
“I can't say that one tattoo is more important than another. I get involved in the stories of the people, and if it's important to them, then it becomes really important to me,†she explains.
Hunter says putting ink onto the skin creates a very personal connection.
“To me, it feels like an honor when someone comes in and allows me to be part of their life,†she says.
She's currently designing a tattoo for a former soldier from Grand Junction, who was the only survivor of a 12-man unit that fought in Afghanistan.
“It's a memorial piece to all of the fallen ones in that group. That really touched my heart.â€
Hunter recalls an author who came in for a tattoo once.
“She wanted to write about tattooing in her new novel. She wanted to experience it so she could write about it. She was 67, and it was her first tattoo,†Hunter says.
Whether it's an angry youngster looking for something disturbing or an indecisive person, part of the job is to make sure people are ready for a tattoo.
“I want them to be sure they are in the right state of mind to get a tattoo. It will be there forever. Unless they get it removed,†she says with a laugh.
She also does cover-ups, and yes, many of those are because those once special names have changed through the years. The name of an old boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse doesn't always make for the fondest memory as the years go by.
A return to art
Hunter's journey to this stage in life always had art in the background.
In high school she wanted to be a civil engineering and was into sketching.
“That didn't work out, and of course, life takes you in many different directions,†she says.
If an old friend or classmate pops in to say hi or get a tattoo, they shouldn't be too upset if she doesn't recognize you. In the early 1990s, she contracted Lymes Disease and lost many of her memories from childhood.
No bad prom dress memories, but many great memories now gone.
“What I hate the most is not having memories of my kids growing up,†she says.
Inkology provides tattooing, piercing, scarification and tattoo removal services.
The negative stigma of tattooing is something Hunter still combats.
“Even through it's becoming more accepted, it still hasn't made that final leap yet,†she says, then smiles. “You can't change some people's minds, you can just thank them for their opinion.â€
Hunter loves that she found her way back to art, and tattooing is a now as much a calling than it is a business for her.
And she's passionate and proud to help people with their love of ink, art and skin.
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