If you see such a guy in a dark alley, do not rush to run away. Most likely in front of you is some kind of creative person. The journalist of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" Viktor Huseynov tells the stories of our compatriots who decided to draw attention to themselves with a tattoo on their face. (Further - the words of the author)
My wife and I have this game: "Skinhead or hairdresser." The rules are very simple - you sit somewhere in a busy place and try to guess what the chosen character is doing. Well, for example, we are sitting in a restaurant, two come in: bald, in high boots, black bomber jackets, tattoos sticking out from everywhere, skinheads from the nineties. You start to listen to what they are talking about - haircuts, some new models of typewriters and you understand, no, these are fashionable hairdressers.
This is how I sat one day, staring into the face of a guy and thinking where he works, what he does. Usually people get annoyed when a stranger looks at them, but this had the answer - a large inscription in English was tattooed on his forehead.
Honestly, I also have a lot of tattoos, my childhood was quite fun, and the blue contagion did not pass me by either. But so that it wouldn’t even occur to me on His face, the phrase “tattoo on the face” and “normal work” could not stand next to each other.
Meeting such people on the street and in the subway, I tried to make a portrait of the average owner of a face tattoo. So, if you see such a guy in a dark alley, do not rush to run away, most likely in front of you is some kind of creative person like these.
Vladimir Komarov. 32 years
I am a craftsman, I work for myself, I sew clothes, haberdashery, I pull furniture. Since I am my own boss and I have a creative job, informal appearance sometimes even helps me, because people expect some bold decisions from me.
Somewhere I came across a photo of a cool guy with a tattoo on his face, I thought, wow, and did it for myself too. To be honest, I just wanted to show off and somehow nothing held me back. Mom didn't like it right away, but I expected that she would be somehow more upset. The only problem is that I am often stopped by traffic cops.
In general, no one in Moscow has been paying attention to me for a long time. But here I went to the Crimea in the summer and felt that people were staring at me and it was a little annoying. When I injected them myself, I probably wanted such attention, but now I have become older and already, probably, would not want to be distracted by this. I don't enjoy it.
Probably, now I would not do them. Now I have no need to show off in this way. Now I can show off something more serious.
Arseny Raskolnikov. 21 years old
I am engaged in PR, advertising, I earn money from it. My parents are creative people, my mother is a composer, my father is a musician. I also found myself in creativity, making video projects, clips, writing music.
A year ago I went to Kiev, my goal was to return from this trip with a tattoo, then there was not even a thought that it would be, but on the third day in a minute I realized that I wanted a cross on my face. For me, the cross is a symbol of the sun, a symbol of the universe. I really like the way my face looks with this tattoo, this is my true face, this cross helps me in my work.
Evgeniy 25 years old
I got my first tattoo at the age of 16 in honor of my mother. She was born in the year of the dragon, the dragon is such a talisman. And so it began. Now I get tattoos when something happens in my life, I have about fifty of them.
I have wanted a tattoo on my face for a very long time, now I wake up looking at myself in the mirror and just enjoy it. When I want to get a new tattoo, nothing stops me, because I am a stylist-hairdresser, I make people better and it will always and everywhere be in demand, no matter how I look.
Alexey Popov 23 years old
I am professionally engaged in parkour and earn money by participating in various shootings, training people. Tattoos do not affect my work in any way, except for those moments when people are needed absolutely without tattoos and if they can somehow be hidden on the body, then you cannot really smear them on your face. But, in general, they do not bring me any discomfort.
I just once wanted to get a tattoo on my face, I went to a tattoo artist I knew and did it. In the first days, I began to notice some glances in my direction and thought that this is tough! now it will always be so. The first tattoos strained my relatives, but then they got used to it.
Teddy Boy Greg, 35
I got my first tattoo in New York when I was only 16. Like any teenager, it was my rebellion against the system. I wanted to stand out. Then I liked to fill more and more pictures on my body - musicians, historical figures, I can't even count how many tattoos I have now.
Almost the entire body is covered with them, only the legs remained clean, but I plan to fill there portraits of Putin and Stalin. Face tattoos have changed my life in general, it's a challenge. I prove that I can be a successful person with tons of tattoos, no matter where they are. Moreover, they help me develop my business. Clients remember the barber, who even has tattoos on his face. It is unusual and attractive.
In Russia, the attitude towards tattoos has remained since Soviet times, when portacs were stuffed exclusively by former convicts. But this is mainly the attitude of the older generation, young people perceive it differently. The situation is exactly the same in the States, my mother is very unhappy that I am getting tattoos.
Expert comments
Psychiatrist Artem Gilev:
- The desire to decorate yourself with tattoos can be associated with a number of reasons. One of them is the desire to attract attention. It can occur in individuals of the hysterical type. There are also painful reasons when a person tries to "protect" himself from evil forces with special symbols on the skin for delusional reasons. But in most cases, tattooing is a tribute to fashion and a desire to decorate your body.
Head of the Department of Skin and Venereal Diseases named after V. A. Rakhmanov of the Sechenov University, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Olga Olisova:
- The paint, which is injected subcutaneously for tattoos, is an antigen, that is, a substance foreign to the body. Therefore, allergic reactions may develop after tattooing. There are frequent cases of the development of pseudolymphoma of the skin at the site of tattoos. This is a benign growth of lymphoid tissue in the form of nodules that requires serious treatment. Pseudolymphoma can degenerate into malignant skin lymphoma. This happens most often when using red paint. The same goes for eyebrow tattooing. In one of the patients with tattooing, we observed sarcoidosis of the skin (a chronic inflammatory disease in which non-absorbable small or large nodules form on the skin. - Ed.).
