Things feel quite different now that I’m out of school completely. A college graduate – something I’m not quite sure I ever planned to hear or expected to say, but that’s what I am. A “professional” photographer, or at least in the process of becoming; I’m no longer a student, but officially trying to make a living through photographs.
I began a personal project mid-semester last year I’ve titled “Ink’d” and it’s surrounded around the idea of tattoos. This was something that has interested me all my life, but something I never took into deep consideration for a very long time. Why? I’m not sure, but I think it was intimidation of people with tattoos – guilty of getting caught up in the stigma or stereotype of people with tattoos being arrogant or mean – because everyone knows if you have a tattoo you’re automatically a “badass” no one wants to mess with, right? Cue my sarcasm.
It has only been in the past few years (with the increase interaction with people with tattoos) that I’ve learned how down right ignorant I was and that it was my own made up conclusion that tattoos were some kind of taboo to get near. Secretly, I’ve always wanted one, and now I admittedly want four, and it’s because that stereotypical bias has been broken that I feel comfortable in saying I have the belief, tattoos are the second skin you grow into over time – and showcasing that is why I wanted to do this project.
A work in progress and something I want to keep as an on-going personal project, in two months, I photographed 22 people and as soon as I have space available, will be shooting more.
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| © Nicole Berger 2011 |
