From rite of passage to job done. The new editorial by Miki Vialetto

In the early 90s I would often go to visit Felix and Loretta Leu and one day, Felix turned to me and said: “there are only two things a man can’t buy: true love and the pain of a tattoo. The only true anaesthetic is the profound longing to have it which allows you to go beyond the pain and cope with it while the work’s being done.”

Of course that was the 90s, over 30 years ago, when tattoo was still seen by many as a symbol of virility, a rite of passage, and those who got themselves a large tattoo in painful places could revel in the satisfaction of having passed that test. A bit like the sensation you get when after an exhausting ascent you get to enjoy the panorama from the summit of the mountain you’ve just climbed. But it is all changed today…

It’s as if the climbers on that mountain are a dying breed, replaced by teams who travel by helicopter and go from one to a hundred in a matter of minutes.

The view is still the same, but the feeling when you’re up there is something else entirely.

For years now there have been all sorts of anaesthetic creams on the market which are used to kill the pain.

Some are more effective than others, but for large scale pieces the effect is merely palliative since the effect is unlikely to last for long. And so for some time now there have been shops offering tattoo under general anaesthetic. Personally I find this utterly abhorrent. I’ve seen videos of famous American rappers getting their entire torso tattooed under general anaesthetic at an exorbitant cost.

How do you feel when you want to look tough but aren’t prepared to face any kind of pain? I leave it to you, the readers, to reach your own conclusion.