Luke Snyder, a student in Penn State's Donald P Bellisario College of Communications, created today's Slice of Pennsylvania on WPSU. It's a series highlighting the everyday sounds and stories of Central and Northern Pennsylvania. Snyder talked with staff from Love and Lies Tattoo in downtown State College about what they love about the art of tattooing.
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Adam Zimmer:
My name is Adam Zimmer and I have been tattooing for 16 years. I love doing surrealism, portrait art, things that are portrait-esque, but also that can't exist. And then I add a lot of graffiti from like growing up and stuff.
I do the same task every day, but I do it on so many different people in so many different ways that every day is coming to a new job. Every day. So, you're not… you don't get bored. At least I don't get bored.
I started getting (tattoos) because it was an individualized feeling thing. I wanted to show that I was “me,” but then it just became like a collection of, I would be in a different town or something and find a tattoo shop open and be like, “Oh, I have skin. It's a souvenir from this place.”
Sierra:
My name is Sierra, and in total I've been a receptionist here for probably four and a half or five years. So, I actually grew up in a tattoo shop. My dad co-owned a shop growing up. So, I grew up around like the environment. Um, at a young age we were seeing people get tattooed, and my family is all covered in tattoos and piercings. So, it was always a thing I wanted to be a part of in some way.
My first tattoo was with my mother. So, it was her only rule, when I turned 18, she said, “You can get tattoos, I don't care, but your first one has to be with me.” So, I have like “Mother” on my shoulder and she has like “Daughter” on her arm. And it just kind of went from there.