THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9506300063
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Art review
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
IT HAS BEEN three years since Loretta Washburn Albany photographed her first tattooed person.
``These people, so many of them are exhibitionists,'' swore Albany, a Virginia Beach resident.
Color prints by Albany are included in ``Eye Tattooed America,'' an exhibit on display through next Sunday at the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts. The show takes tattooing seriously, and looks at the phenomenon from a historical, cultural and esthetic viewpoint.
Besides the ``flash,'' or designs of tattoo artists, the exhibit presents works by mainstream fine artists such as Ed Paschke who have been influenced by tattoo.
Albany shows photos of tattoo artists from around the world, including a very prominent one who happens to live in this area - J.D. Crowe of Yorktown. Albany, 43, has been widely exhibited; her book of photographic portraits and profiles of psychics, ``Mind Travelers,'' was published in 1994 by Hampton Roads Publishing Company.
Photographing the tattoo artists was not Albany's original intent.
``I do a lot of black-and-white nudes. And I've seen people tattooed all over. I thought it would be interesting to do a series of work where people are tattooed all over.''
She found her first model in Virginia Beach through a friend. ``And this fellow I photographed suggested I meet the man who does his tattoos, that he could probably get me some names and numbers.''
Albany followed that lead. She soon learned that most tattooed folks are happy to pose.
``Their skin is their canvas. It's their artwork, and they love to show it.''
She learned there were tattoo conventions, and decided to go to one and set up a studio. That's where she hit pay dirt.
In 1993, at the first one she attended, ``people were lined up down the hall to get their portrait made. It was just wild. One person would tell someone else: `If you want to be photographed, come up to this lady's room.'
``And some of these people I didn't want to photograph. They might just have a tattoo on their shoulder. Well, so what?''
She recalled shooting a 66-year-old man who was entirely tattooed, from the top of his head and even on his penis. Another guy had an entire zoo on his chest, zebras and all.
Not everyone posed in the nude. ``Some guys were like, `Man, I can't take off my pants. I just can't do it.' And that was OK.''
People caught up in permanent body embellishments eventually run out of skin. One such fellow tattooed curses inside his mouth. But most folks get into body piercing, she said.
She met one guy who had 24 pieces of jewelry attached to his genitals.
``I said to him, `My god, why did you do that?' And he said, `It's a pleasurable pain.'
``You hear that a lot: `A pleasurable pain.' ''
After a few years of contact with these illustrated humans, Albany just had to try it out. A man in Crowe's Yorktown studio did the deed.
``It's the most painful thing I've been through.''
More painful than childbirth? (Albany has three children.)
``Well, no. But it was, like, close. It hurt so bad. It took about three- and-a-half hours. I guess it depends on where on your body you're getting them.''
Albany put hers on her hip.
``I thought about it for a while. Of course, it had to be something meaningful for me. When I was a little girl, I used to have this dream that I was a mermaid. And it was the most wonderful place to go.
``So I have this tattoo of a mermaid on my hip, but it looks just like me.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Photographer Loretta Washburn Albany's took this picture of herself
with tattoo artist J.D. Crowe of Yorktown. Works by Albany are
included in the exhibit ``Eye Tattooed America.''
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY by CNB