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Under the needle
 Media Credit: Gretchen Lundberg/Staff Photographer Judy Hunstiger tattoos Karen Orthman for four hours. Orthman has spent a total of 15 hours of getting her back tattooed. She is three quarters done with her final back mural. She still wants to add two fairies representing her daughters and one fairy representing herself.
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 Media Credit: Gretchen Lundberg/Staff Photographer Orthman takes a break to admire Judy�s work.
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 Media Credit: Michael Martin/Managing Editor Ben Tangen of St. Michael receives a tattoo from Mark Gripp at Cloud 9 in St. Cloud. Tangen is a graduate of SCSU.
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 Media Credit: Michael Martin/Managing Editor This was Tangen�s first tattoo. The whole process of receiving the tattoo took around four hours. Tangen does not plan on getting any more tattoos.
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At Jeff's Tattoos and Total Body Piercing, the elaborate flower and jungle tattoo covering most of Karen Orthman's entire back has been an ongoing work-in-progress.
Over the past two years, 15 hours of Orthman's life have been dedicated to creating the intricate design, and more will follow. At Orthman's most recent session, tattoo artist Judy Hunstiger, whose husband Jeff owns the business, will be adding a frame to the skin mural.
Judy shows Orthman the stencils she is about to use.
"I thought we'd use these and I found a bumblebee and a dragonfly to add to the outside, what do you think?" Hunstiger asks.
Orthman's face lights up with a smile.
"That's great, I like that," she says.
Sitting in a chair at Cloud 9, Ben Tangen is getting his first tattoo - a lion. Unlike a lot of his friends who got tattoos when they were 18 or 19, Tangen gave his tattoo five or six years of careful consideration before taking action.
"I didn't want it to be spur of the moment," Tangen says. "I also wanted it to be done at the right shop. A colleague referred me to Cloud 9."
The lion, which Cloud 9 owner and tattoo artist Mark Gripp will be putting on Tangen, will take up the majority of his left bicep almost to his elbow.
"I like the idea of a tough animal staring at you," Tangen says. "It gets respect."
At Cloud 9, the air conditioner is a welcome remedy to the unexpected burst of heat outside. Tangen glances at his watch; two hours have passed. Despite the amount of time he has spent sitting, he can't help but smile.
Before Gripp begins filling in the lion, he pauses to relax and loosen his hand muscles.
"You can get fatigued," Gripp says. "I try to take a break every hour and a half, if I can."
Soon, Gripp will begin filling in the color. Tangen has opted for a black and gray lion.
When Tangen is finished, he stands up and stretches. Gripp looks at his final product and smiles�both men are satisfied with the work.
Gripp and Jeff Hunstiger are two men who have had long-time interest in their profession.
Jeff's interest stemmed from the mechanics of tattooing. His intrigue with the workings of tattoo machines inspired an apprenticeship. The experience he gained led him to become a professional tattoo artist. For Gripp also, interest in body art came at an early age.
"When I was younger I was tempted to buy a tattooing kit," Gripp said. "But I didn't want to butcher anyone."
Gripp, like Hunstiger, started as an apprentice, and has been tattooing for eight years.
According to Gripp, being a good artist is a prerequisite to being a tattooist.
Jeff's selection of employees shows he supports Gripp's belief. Judy, his wife, has a background in coloring, shading and oil painting, and Eric Cagle, his other tattoo artist, has a background in graphic design.
Jeff recommends having tattoos done only by professionals, and avoiding amateur venues.
"They have apprentices. Those shops don't care. They practice on people they will never see again," Jeff said. "They use people as a practice piece. Don't be someone's practice piece."
Jeff's integrity is evident in his hiring standards; he requires employees to have mandatory drug testing, a practice often unheard of in the tattoo industry. Jeff's solid work ethics made him a prime candidate for composing the city ordinance for tattoo parlors in St. Cloud.
The reason Jeff helped create the tattoo ordinance is that the federal government does not regulate the tattoo industry. Instead, it has left laws and ordinances regarding tattooing up to the discretion of state and local city governments.
Minnesota, like most other states, has a law that does not allow minors to get a tattoo without parental consent. Minnesota statues define a tattoo as "an indelible mark or figure fixed on the body by insertion of pigment under the skin or by the production of scars." The Minnesota Department of Health also publishes a brochure that gives guidelines for tattoo artists and consumers. The brochure covers all aspects of tattooing from the environment of a tattoo parlor to sterilization techniques and methods for tattoo removal.
Locally, St. Cloud has a detailed ordinance to cover tattooing. The city requires that all tattoo artists be licensed. Artists can obtain a license only if they are over age 18, free of communicable diseases, and if their parlor passes an inspection conducted by the public health department. The license is renewed yearly, and can be revoked if the parlor does not pass its annual inspection, or if it is determined to be a menace to the health, safety or general welfare of the community.
St. Cloud tattoo artists are not allowed to tattoo anyone with a communicable disease. All needles and other supplies such as towels and bandages must be sterile and can only be used once. Tools used must also be sterilized using a steam-pressured autoclave that meets regulations. Each artist must scrub his or her hands before tattooing a customer and wear gloves during the tattooing.
Minors cannot get a tattoo in St. Cloud without the consent of both parents, even in the case of divorced parents with joint custody. Parents must be present during the tattooing process unless they have submitted a letter of consent.
Additionally, no person may be tattooed while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
About two hours have passed and Judy is rounding out the finishing outlines on Orthman's back.
Orthman gets up to inspect Judy's progress in the mirror. She walks around and stretches her legs. So does Judy.
The focus during the two hours makes both women stiff and tense. Orthman is rigid and part of her back is pink and puffy. She tries to ignore the pain while Judy changes the needle in the machine.
Soon Judy and Orthman are ready to go back to work and the familiar hum of the tattoo machine resumes.
Judy finishes by working on the colors. While the pain lingers, it is a familiar feeling to Orthman. They discuss the color of the dragonfly's wings.
The flow of traffic this Saturday is heavy. Customers periodically peek around the corner to admire Judy's work as she finishes the flowers.
"There, we are done," says Judy.
Orthman rises and lets out a sigh of relief. She looks again at the completed frame of the mural on her back. Jeff and Judy want to take a picture of the work for their scrapbook. Then Orthman is given her post tattoo care information, which she knows well.
She is not to get any direct sunlight for a week.
She is to put the salve on for a week.
She is to keep it covered for a couple of hours at least, to heal. It will scab over, but she is not to pick at it.
Eventually Orthman wants to add two small fairies representing her two daughters and a large fairy representing herself to the design. For now, she just smiles and knows that she is one step closer to the completion of her own most personal piece of art.
"There is a lot of different creativity that everyone holds," Orthman says. "Tattoos are an expression of that creativity."
This special report on tattoos was a project of the spring semester Mass Communications 340 class.
Project leader
Jake Zisla
Research team
Leslie Andres
Nissa Billmyer
Joe Gill
Geoff Higgins
Chris Larson
Andy Rennecke
Visuals team
Gretchen Lundberg
Michael Martin
Writing team
Kristen J. Kubisiak
Eric O'Link
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