August 17, 2021

"Metz-Caporusso, who uses they/she pronouns and describes themselves as 'unapologetically fat and queer,' came up with the idea for roll flowers after hearing clients wistfully talk..."

"... about the tattoos they wanted to get -- but only once they had lost weight. The tattooist could empathize -- they had also once felt pressure to reach 'whatever weight I thought I needed to be at' before getting a stomach tattoo.... Metz-Caporusso noted there was a 'lot of fat shaming in tattooing,' and 'a lot of turning people down' for being above a certain size.... 'I knew when I designed the roll flowers, the first thing people would think was, "But what happens when you lose weight?" So, I was trying to challenge that thought... A fat person isn't a failing thin person. A fat person is just a person, and they should be made to feel as good as anyone else should be made to feel.'"

From "The tattooist creating body-positive 'roll flowers'" (CNN).

Go to the link for photographs. The "roll flowers" work with the rolls of fat on the body. I'd never thought about the problem of tattooing and fat rolls. You don't want the image to disappear inside the roll. Metz-Caporusso makes the roll part of the design and has plant shapes emerging from the rolls in a natural way. It's an interesting solution, though it does make it clear why many tattooists would want to reject a client with fat rolls. Is it "fat shaming" not to want to work on a pleated surface?

15 comments:

Yancey Ward said...

"I'd never thought about the problem of tattooing and fat rolls."

Your privilege is showing, Ms. Althouse!

Wa St Blogger said...

As long as they are not being asked to create a tattoo celebrating a gay marriage, they should be able to accept or reject any medium/client they wish for the sake of artistic expression. "Sorry, my specialty is skulls and dragons, I'm not so good at plants peaking out of fat rolls."

Tom T. said...

This seems like the right place to mention the the MAD magazine fold-in.

Original Mike said...

"Go to the link for photographs."

With the knowledge that that seen cannot be unseen, I respectfully decline.

tim maguire said...

Nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels. Kate Moss

We should be respectful to everyone, but it's irresponsible to encourage people to be unhealthy.

gilbar said...

protip: speaking a obese person, the OVERWHELMLY Majority of fat people do NOT have to worry about... What will i look like when i lose weight?
You AREN'T GOING TO LOSE WEIGHT... your Best Hope is to not gain a LOT

Michael said...

Great! We are leaving thousands to their fate in Afghanistan and what we should find interesting is roll flowers. Good to know.

Joe Smith said...

Women in Afghanistan are being raped and married off against their will, turned into domestic slaves for Taliban fighters, and this is what Xer is worried about in today's America.

The decline of an empire, indeed...

Old and slow said...

I once had a girlfriend who was a very skilled painter and also a tattoo artist. She could not bring herself to draw scary skulls, only slightly silly ones. Guys were always trying to get her to tattoo tough looking skulls on them. She also did cake decorations, quite a girl...

MadisonMan said...

(Laugh) What Original Mike said. Just the phrase "roll flowers" is enough. Rolls of unsightly multihued skin with tattoos on them. (shudder).
I'm assuming a tattoo that has to cover all that extra space on the skin costs more. I have zero tattoos though, so what do I know.

madAsHell said...

Apparently, no one in this crowd has ever seen a Mad magazine fold-in.

I never got them right on the first folding.

madAsHell said...

Damn!!

I'm second to Tom T.

Cheers, man!

Bunkypotatohead said...

Fat people being body positive reminds me of the self esteem movement for kids a decade or two ago. They were encouraged to feel good about themselves for having accomplished nothing.

Breezy said...

I think this is great entrepreneurship! Tattoos and people’s bodies change all the time. I’ve seen tattoo art that uses a person’s scars. Why not cater to a particular set of circumstances? Win-win.

Skippy Tisdale said...

As a younger man, I worked a lot with gutter punks. They're alright and really don't ask for much.

One of them told me about a really, really large man who took so many drugs that he passed out at their squat and for three full days lay motionless on one side, his arm pinned underneath the weight of his massive body. Due to the loss of blood-flow, an 18-inch strip of flesh on his upper arm necrotized and he was left with a long deep scar. His solution? He had it tattooed to look like a deep, gaping wound with most of the stitches ripped out and still hanging. Creative guy.