Flagstaff, Tattoos and Piercings

Just back from a weekend in Flagstaff, a rather quirky little city. What else would you expect of a town named after a flagpole? At 7000-9000 feet Flagstaff is one of the highest cities in America. It was also a train depot for the transcontinental railroad and a stop along the Mother Road- Route 66- America’s first transcontinental highway. 

"Well it goes from St Louis, down to Missouri 

Oklahoma city looks oh so pretty

You'll see Amarillo and Gallup, New Mexico

Flagstaff, Arizona don't forget Winona

Kingsman, Barstaw, San Bernadino ....."                                                                                               from the song Route 66. 

Route 66 has largely been replaced by I-40 although there is still a stretch in use in Flagstaff.  But the railroad is still in use 24/7.  Once the reason for Flagstaff’s growth, the train- or rather train noise-is largely responsible for Flagstaff’s lack of growth.  It took till last year for the city government to make a connection between the railroad noise and the fact that Flagstaff has not grown at all- it has in fact shrunk - in the past 20 years. When we first started making this our summer home there were three theater companies, a Shakespeare festival and a symphony orchestra. They now have only one small theater group with about 100 seats and few if any new restaurants or shopping centers or home developments in over 20 years. This past year they finally stopped the train horns at every crossing. Horray!

Aside from tourism the other big business in Flagstaff is the local university, Northern Arizona University. Almost everyone I deal with in restaurants, hotels or shops is a college student.  And I find that the summer population of Flagstaff has a unusually high percentage of tattoos and piercings. I don’t mean a discreet little butterfly in an intimate spot or a tiny diamond accenting the side of the nose. I mean a multicolored octopus tattoo entirely covering a lower leg or large nose rings hanging between the nostrils. These nose rings are particularly popular in Flagstaff (city size 65,000. 7 tattoo parlors). Everywhere I went this weekend, these nose rings were in my face. Why are these decorated students here instead of home with their families for the summer? School is out. I bet they need or want peer support. Or aren’t welcome at home. 

My horse, Romeo, is sharing a large field with a few other horses. One young colt is owned by a couple of college kids with matching black nose rings between their nostrils about the size of a quarter. When I first saw them from a distance in a field with the horses I thought they had been fighting and both had bloody noses. When I saw them close up I thought locked up in a field was the right place for them. That’s how local cowboys mark ownership of cows. But apparently this couple is  doing what we used to call ‘going steady’. 

An hour later we went out to dinner at Pita Jungle, a very nice Arizona chain of healthy dining restaurants. Every person working there was marked with piercings and large tattoos. That is where I saw the octopus covering an entire leg. Fortunately my server did not have any piercing but his arms and lets were completely covered with tattoos. There were several attractive girls working there with these same large cow-nose rings. Not my idea of appetizing. One pretty girl had large hideous monsters- women with mouths like hungry ghosts in Chinese mythology- on both arms and large somethings largely hidden from sight on her breasts. 

Now....... I’m all for free expression so my concern is not their disfiguring body art. But viewing their 'art' is turning me into an old foggy. I have always advocated live and let live. Do your own thing. But the fact remains that my reaction to most body art is revulsion. 

I turned to Mr. Google for some support and confirmed that I am, in fact an old foggy.” “Two reactions seem possible in persons who see a tattoo. One is complete fascination, a feeling that here is the ultimate stud, the traveling sailor, the incomparable sadistic master, the criminal released from jail. The other is complete revulsion; the tattoo represents the epitome of sleaze, of low class background, of cheap vulgarity and bad taste, everything that intelligence and sophistication have conditioned you to despise” 

Yup. That sounds about right. But now what? And let’s not forget that I was raised Jewish where tattoos were used by Hitler to turn people into numbers. How do I overcome that childhood conditioning? 

But Mr. Google let me down. I could find a lot of opinions and even a PhD thesis about all phases of tattooing and body piercing. And a suggestion for parents:  “Hard as it may be, a nonjudgmental approach is best. Adults need to respect adolescents' autonomy and convey empathy for the fact that it's a tough age. Also, to give some hopefulness that a lot of things are transient, developmental changes that go away.'' 


Well, I’m not their parent. And I’m a believer in voting with my wallet. So should I walk out of a restaurant or Trader Joe’s where everyone is tattooed and pierced? Should I inconvenience myself to allow tattoo fans to experience their self expression? I want to feel comfortable, not revolted when I walk around town. When I’m at the ranch and these two kids show up again to visit their colt I want to be able to look them in the face. I don’t have an answer. Do you?