People are walking around with some new ink today after visiting the annual Am-Jam Tattoo Expo in East Syracuse over the weekend. The event, known as the longest running tattoo show in the country, brings with it hundreds of foot-trafficking and over 100 local and international artists.
One of those people was Miranda Parkhurst, who is the proud, new owner of a little, three-eyed bunny who found its forever home on her leg.
"I used to have a leg tattood when I was younger. I dated a tattoo artist when I was younger and now whenever I have the opportunity to, I can. I'm starting to get more, bigger pieces and cover up some of the smaller pieces that I got when I was younger."
Parkhurst says that collecting other people’s art work on her body is a form of self-expression. But for tattoo artist and combat veteran Michelle Manhart, it’s also a way to not settle with the skin you were born into.
"It's something about it is you feel like you have control of who you are becoming. Not just, 'I was born. This is who I am,' but you are controlling your body."
Tattooing helps Manhart clear her mind, and she says it helps her fellow service-people deal with their PTSD. For them, tattooing isn’t as painful as you would expect.
"Well, it's a tattoo, of course it's going to hurt, but with me, and with a lot of military people the pain is actually very soothing for us. It allows us to realize that we're still here feeling this and we have a lot of people that, unfortunately, aren't. Not to bring it down, but that's how we handle the pain."
She says the pain feels like a sunburn that you’ve hit on the counter or just washed in hot water. What tattooing really does, in her opinion, is allow pain to be translated into something beautiful. She hopes that even if people didn’t get some ink at her expo table this weekend, they still walked away with a smile.