For as long as I’ve been here I haven’t talked to too many people (anxiety is GREAT), though I have people watched, and taken many mental notes. As shitty as not being able to talk to people is, being a fly on the wall does have it perks. Mainly that if I blend into the background enough I can witness a lot of interesting things.
Here are some things I’ve noticed:.
-Most graffiti/street artists here have a lot of visible tattoos, and most all tattoo shops have murals. Though there is a fairly strict divide, I can guess who in a group of moody artistic individuals does tattoos and who is going to tear up that wall. I still need to look more into that.
-Not that many women have tattoos, and the women that do have them typically have them on their backs, thighs, and surprisingly chests. Not to say arm tattoos aren’t popular among women here, because they are, it just seems to me that women try to get tattoos they can easily hide (or show off with a tank top).
-Colorful tattoos aren’t very popular.
This actually something I didn’t notice myself, at the tattoo expo I went to I had a conversation with the wife of a tattoo artist from San Diego, and she pointed out how anyone with colorful tattoos stick out even among a crowd full of tatted individuals. Once she brought this up I realized how true it is, especially for women. I remember seeing one woman in passing with a full sleeve that had no black and she stood out. A lot. Enough so I’m mentioning her specifically now.
Then it started to click why people stare at me a bit. I’m latino, so my facial features and skin tone help me blend in. I bought a wardrobe to blend in more with the ~*youth*~, so I don’t believe I stick out too much with that either. Being fat gets you stares, which I’m used to, but I have a half sleeve thats colorful. People ask about it often. The fact that a) women don’t really get visible tattoos here and b) my visible tattoo is a colorful one makes me a bit of a spectacle. Yay.
-More on body-mod culture, the amount of stretched ears here and the broad age group donning is something I’m still getting used to. I would make the claim that the majority of college aged individuals here have stretched ears. It might not actually be the majority but I swear it’s a fuck ton.
-People like stretching their ears, but damn they don’t really have than many facial piercings. That might be another reason people like to stare at me, I have an eyebrow, a septum, and a lip piercing (As well as a masculine haircut). Everytime I see someone else with facial piercings my heart gets all warm and shit, because then I don’t feel so alone. I’ve seen a lot of men with septums, so the fact I’m a female with all this damn metal in my face is probably pretty weird. Whoops don’t care lol
-There are shops here dedicated to specifically graffiti supplies (and fashion for people who spray paint apparently), and a lot of restaurants and various businesses have places on the side of their buildings labeled as wall space specifically for graffiti. It floors me. Graffiti is so, part of the urban landscape here and it’s so embraced. And it’s changing frequently, streets are a living organism, aging and changing its camouflage daily.
-Another thing I find interesting is that there’s the artists who just tag the living shit out of any available wall, essentially just barely legible signatures, or artists who are muralists. And then there’s those artist walking the line in-between. The taggers have no problem doing work over other taggers, but I *rarely* see tagger putting work over muralists. I’ve seen muralists have no problem put work over those in-between artists, but taggers almost...seem hesitant to put work over the in-betweeners, sometimes their signatures will brush against the edge of some sorta-murals. Ive no idea why this is, it’s almost like a hierarchy? I dunno still think it’s interesting in its consistency, still on the search for the rulebook that explains all of the reasoning behind this lol
-People also like to put their contact info on their graffiti which is also something that i cannot grasp.
-The poetry scene, which I’ve only barely dipped my toes into here, does cross with street art every now and then and i find it quite refreshing; big-ass words spray painted across a brick wall is pretty cool ‘cause whoever put it there had to be very careful with what they say and very intentional since there’s not that much room for a lot of words.
Obviously I’m not an expert and probably some of what I’ve said isn’t the entire truth, but it’s what I’ve noticed and is the truth as far as I can tell, it’s my anxious observant-self’s truth.
Later,
--Claudia