Portland Strip Clubs: The Art and Stories of Tattoo Culture
by exoticinportlandPortland, Oregon has been a nexus for tattoo culture for some time. I lived there for four years, from 2002 until 2006, and in that time I got a tattoo of my own and watched many people I knew become canvases for the many tattoo artists in the city. The number of tattoo parlors nearly comes close to the density of strip clubs, which only that city could translate into an accomplishment. They have a lot of bookstores, too. But there has always been a line in the sand between tattoo culture and fine art. Tattoos are works of art; they are conceived and executed by practitioners honing their craft, yet tattoo artists are not grouped with painters or collage artists or even sculptors (another group of artist who work in three dimensions), even though very often it is the case that a tattoo artist will be a fine artist as well. This line may now be dissolving, albeit slowly.
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