Tattoo parlors see trade rise before deployments

Tattoo parlors see trade rise before deployments
By Diane Mouskourie

Roni Falgout uses a needle to draw the fine lines of her designs.

And rather than creating on paper or canvas, she prefers skin. More often than not, that skin belongs to a Marine, she said.

“I’d say 80 to 90 percent of our business is Marines,” Falgout said.

She works for Unique Ink and Kustom Tattoo on U.S. 24, one of two businesses owned by Tom Boehm, a retired gunnery sergeant. Falgout has been tattooing for nearly 13 years, the first two as an apprentice at a professional shop in Seattle. Back then, being a tattoo artist was her way of rebelling, she said.

“When I was young that was important to me – not anymore,” the 36-year-old said. “Now, it’s just not so important.”

On a recent Saturday, Falgout spent nearly two hours transforming Jody McCarty’s side and stomach into a biblical scene featuring the archangel Michael.

“I showed him a few drawings that were obviously taken from the Bible,” she said. “He didn’t like that style, so I modified it to something he did like.

McCarty, a 20-year-old Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, said he wanted something “uniquely my own, something I would not see on anyone else.”

He was 18 and still in high school the first time he got a tattoo, McCarty said.

“I always wanted a tattoo and when I finally (got one), I wanted more,” he said. “I was still in high school when I got the first one, and my mother didn’t even know until the next morning.”

Now, McCarty has four tattoos: the archangel, which covers half his stomach and side; an 8-inch drawing of St. Christopher with the words “Protect Us” on his chest; a skeleton coming out of a coffin on his upper arm that says “No Excuses, No Regrets”; and another on his other arm that says “My Life for Freedom.”

His friend Christopher Jackson got his first tattoo about two years ago when he came back from his first tour in Iraq. It’s a 4-inch black-and-gray design of the grim reaper on his chest. Although Jackson has no plans to get another tattoo, he wants to have some shading done that shows death and angels around the existing art, he said.

“It’s sort of the same as the ying and yang,” Jackson said.

Another local tattoo artist, Eric Reust, opened his first parlor on Court Street during the early 1970s. Reust owns Odyssey Tattoo, which is now located on U.S. 17.

Similarly, most of his business comes from Marines – about 80 percent, Reust said. And it’s not just the young men and women fresh from boot camp either, he noted. Business tends to spike just before or after a deployment.

Upwards of 14,000 Lejeune Marines are headed to Iraq during the next few months. Some units have already left.

“A Marine is a special animal; he’s going to get a tattoo,” Reust said. “Usually on Saturdays, after pay day, I’ll have as many as 30 Marines waiting their turn.”

Oyssey’s walls are covered with photos of Marines, male and female, who have been away fighting in Iraq. They send Reust autographed Iraqi money as a sort of souvenir. Those hang on the wall near their photos.

Then there is the bulletin board covered with photos of various tattooed arms, legs, backs and bare chests. There are some body parts that Reust, nor any of the other tattoo artists at Odyssey, will do, he said.

“We send them down the street for that,” he said with a hearty laugh.

The shop does offer body piercing, but Reust won’t do that himself, he said.

“I don’t have the stomach for it,” he said.

During his more than 30 years in the business, Reust has seen many fads come and go. In the past, black panthers were a popular choice as were skulls, Reust said.

Customers choose from hundreds of variations on various themes, or they have Reust design an original – another trend Reust has noticed in recent years.

“Young people want to have a tattoo that is just theirs; one that they’ll never see on anyone else,” he said.

Popular choices for today’s Marines tend to revolve around what Reust calls God and country – Marine Corps symbols such as the globe and anchor or bulldogs. Some choose to be branded with the information contained on their dog tags: name, rank, social security number, blood type and so on. And with U.S. casualties in Iraq still routine, Reust says he’s also tattooing more Bible verses, praying hands and crosses.

“I have done more crosses on these guys who are going over there than I can count,” Reust said.

He shares the story of one Marine who recently returned from Iraq. He was still recovering from three gunshot wounds and was bandaged around his middle, drainage bags hanging from his side, Reust said.

Reust wasn’t sure how he would handle the work, but he found a way. The Marine had come to him specifically for a tattoo of a globe and anchor before going home to complete his convalescence, he said.

“Combat vets rate whatever they want in my book,” he said. “These guys are unbelievable what they’re going through.”