DATE: Saturday, July 12, 1997               TAG: 9707110111

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Maddry 

                                            LENGTH:   84 lines

WILL TATTOO EXPO MAKE A LASTING IMPRESSION ON CHICK'S BEACH?

THE FIRST Chick's Beach Tattoo Expo.

I suppose it was only natural that it would happen at Chick's Beach. I've seen people sleeping under the bridge over the Chesapeake Bay with so many tattoos they look as though they spent the night sleeping on rain-soaked comic strips in the Sunday paper.

Bob Guess, who builds boats in his garage on Fentress Avenue when the B&B Boat Shop Club isn't frying fish and drinking beer there, was on the phone.

And talking about the exhibition of tattoo art to be held in his section of Chesapeake Beach.

Bob said he, Ed Cobb, Randy and Bobbie Clemmons and Will Walker dropped by the garage recently and - after a few Buds - took note of the culturally deprived character of the Chick's Beach neighborhood.

``You know we don't have a single museum in Chesapeake Beach, so our children have to be driven a long way to them,'' he said.

He said Chick's Beach was nearly fresh out of art except for the tattoos on guys and gals on the beach near the bridge-tunnel.

``If you take away the neon sign advertising Camel cigarettes in the Junior Market window - which looks real nice after dark and has given a creative uplift to our little community - there's hardly anything left except the tattoos.''

That's when the idea of holding an exhibition of tattoo art - and giving prizes for the best tattoos - came up.

``Ed said it was an excellent idea because everybody had hoped that Nauticus would have a huge display of tattoo art but it didn't,'' Bob reported. He said Ed thought that might explain the declining attendance figures there.

I told him that . . . come to think of it . . . the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk and the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia in Virginia Beach were fresh out of 'em too.

Bob said tattoos were part of our cultural heritage in Hampton Roads (although tattoo parlors are now prohibited in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Chesapeake).

A tattooist named Coleman of Norfolk was known by sailors around the world for his needlework at an emporium at 427 E. Main St. in the 1940s. He had so many tattoos himself that he resembled a walking Louvre.

Adm. Bill Halsey of World War II fame had a tattoo on his shoulder. Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater had one. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Gerald R. Ford reportedly had them. And so did King George of England, whose forearm was covered by a yellow, fire-breathing dragon.

And, Bob noted, Dennis Rodman of the Chicago Bulls has made tattoos fashionable and chic in the '90s.

I had no knowledge whether they were chic or not but phoned Army-Navy Tattoo up on U.S. Route 17, not far from Yorktown, to check.

Joe Sterling, the owner of the tattoo parlor, said it was so.

``The popularity goes through the entire spectrum of society,'' he said. These days, people getting tattoos tend to get one representing their profession, he said.

``If you were a fireman, you might want to get something like a Dalmatian sitting in a fireman's hat,'' he said. ``Doctors and nurses often want a caduceus, the medical symbol.''

And, Sterling said, more and more women are getting them. Women go for teddy bears, roses, dolphins and the like, he reported.

The process of tattooing, too, has changed. It's not as painful as it once was, and it's more antiseptic. At Army-Navy Tattoo - where a customer can choose from hundreds of patterns or create his or her own - tattoo artists wear latex gloves and use steam sterilizers for the equipment.

Bob Guess said there were a lot of details to be worked out for the expo: whether there should be categories for both men and women, whether folks displaying their tattoos should stand still or move around, and what prizes to give for the best ones.

He said Randy Clemmons proposed that dogs that were tattooed for identification purposes should be allowed to enter the contest but got no support.

Bob claimed the Chick's Beach Tattoo Expo is now on track, and tentative plans are to hold it Labor Day weekend.

He said, ``We've got everybody on board now except Randy, who has been needled so much about suggesting dogs for the expo that it seems to have gotten under his skin.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

VICKI CRONIS

The Virginian-Pilot

Kevin Bozeman, visiting from Columbia, S.C., checks out his nearly

finished tattoo at Army-Navy Tattoo in Grafton.

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