The Journalist with some potential ink ideas

It’s around 6 pm on a cold late winter evening. A white, American man on the back half of his middle aged year sits in his suburban home in an upper middle-class northeastern town. He’s watching some sort of sporting event. His son calls him, as his son tends to do once a week. And as the father does once a week, he answers, “Hey buddy”.

“Hey!” the son retorts pleasantly. “I’m thinking about getting a face tattoo. What do you think?”

“I’m thinking about ripping your face off”, the dad says plainly. The son pictured his dad’s eyes smiling playfully. Son still can’t pull one of on the old man.

As a reporter, I can’t determine on the playfulness of the eyes, but as the son I guarantee he probably even rolled them.

Now its 1pm, earlier that same day. An instagram account is DM’d. But this is not just any instagram account. @dutchessofink belongs to a 34-year-old African American tattoo artist. The Dutchess, or more casually, just Dutchess, has 1.2 million followers and is formally a main cast member on the hit VH1 show Black Ink Crew, a reality series which chronicals the ups and downs of one of Harlem’s most well-known tattoo shops.

The Dutchess (@dutchessofink)

The DM received by Dutchess was sent by the same journalist with the same question that he would ask his father later that day, “Hey! I’m thinking about getting a face tattoo. What do you think?” Unlike when the father was asked, Dutchess left the question unanswered. She never even saw the DM.

The journalist is not, in fact, thinking about getting a face tattoo. But the journalist’s profile picture on instagram is his blonde haired, blue-eyed face in a navy blue blazer and red tie smiling with the privileged joy that only comes from being excited about graduating your private-day school. Ok fine…fine. It’s my picture. And I am definitely not thinking about getting a face tattoo. But with the juxtaposition of the question and my white-bread picture, I thought she might get back to me so I could ask her a few question about something that has seemed to fascinate the mainstream hip hop culture in the past year, more so than it ever has: face tattoos.

“You better be able to get this money if you ink your face.” -The Dutchess

It’s no secret that hip hop and other facets of black culture have infatuated the minds of many of white people who grew up way far from the marginalized, disenfranchised, and oppressed communities that birthed what has become the most popular genre of music in the world as of 2017. My father is not one of those people, but even he knows at this point the influence of the hip hop culture onto the mainstream is undeniable; sneakers, clothing, athletics, visual art, and even linguistics are utilized everyday by people of all races and backgrounds that might not even consider themselves fans or participants of hip hop culture. Its presence in our modern society is eminent.

Saggy pant, oversized t-shirts, and flamboyant gold jewelry may have shocked a certain demographic in this country 20 years ago, but now the aesthetics are commonplace. The cashier at the vintage record and t-shirt shop in town was not too surprised when ringing my Dad out with the Snoop Dogg The Smoker’s Tour t-shirt around last Christmas time. Hip hop, however, is still the voice of the voiceless, and when the voiceless is finally heard, they aren’t going to stop pushing the boundaries, leaving some people who don’t understand uneasy. The newest element of hip-hop that seems to be doing this is the face tattoo.

Face tattoos have there origin in gang culture, and it’s no secret that gang culture and hip hop culture have it’s ties, both being originating from oppressed, minority communities. There are rappers with feet in both cultures who have found main stream success in the industry for over ten years now; Lil Wayne, The Game, Gucci Mane. My father has heard of these people.

“Yea…yea…I know those guys. Well I don’t know them, but I’ve heard of them. The Wayne guy I know. He looks like he’s got a cartoon on his face.”

“Have you ever heard of 21 Savage, Lil Pump, or 69?” I asked.

“Maybe how do you spell 69?” he says sarcastically.

“What about Lil Uzi Vert?”

“What do you think, son, I don’t even know what your saying.”, says Dad.

“I think if you are making a lot of money, and if apart of it is because you have face tattoos, then good for you. But chances are, those face tattoos won’t make you money forever” -middle aged white man

Lil Uzi Vert

The list of the newest and most relevant rappers who have populated the charts in the past year with face tattoos being a key part of there aesthetic is vast. There are a few major differences between the new class of tattooed faces and few who have been around for years. The first is exactly that. There are so many new rappers who have face tattoos and are also recognized for their face tattoos compared to the past. 12 rappers who have risen to popularity, having songs on the Billboard Top 25 Hot RnB and Hip Hop charts in the past 6 months have face tattoos (billboard.com). There is a generation of artists that are defining themselves not only by a specific sound, but also by the fact that they have face tattoos. They work together, post pictures of themselves together online and people identify them by the ink on their faces as much as there music.

The second major difference is that fact that they are the ones posting the pictures. They have utilized the power of Internet to gain success and notoriety. And the users of the Internet have decided that they are worthy of success and notoriety. The users of the Internet come from all sorts of backgrounds, just like hip hop fans. In former generations where rappers with face tattoo would find fame, it would primarily be through there music, and the primary purveyors of success would be listeners from those impoverished communities that created hip hop. They are closest both physically and mentally to the culture. Then the artists would spread to other populations of hip-hop fans, like the ones in the neighborhood I grew up in. When the artist got big enough communities outside the inner city and images of them started to appear on television, the face tattoo added a unique aesthetic element, but was secondary to the music. Now when an artist drops, his song, picture and brand is released on the Internet and all types of fans get to experience the music and culture immediately. In turn, neighborhoods like mine have more of a say in what’s the newest and greatest in hip-hop.

This begs the question? Is the inclusion of white people in the ongoing creation of the hip-hop culture the reason for the rise in popularity of face-tattooed artists?

“So what do you think of face tattoos, Dad?”

The Journalist’s father with some “ridiculously stupid”, as he puts it, face tattoos

“ I think there ridiculously stupid. I think if you are making a lot of money, and if apart of it is because you have face tattoos, then good for you. But chances are, those face tattoos won’t make you money forever, and you will have thrown away any sort of chance of having anything close to a career in anything else you try to do. And if you get a face tattoo, I will seriously rip your face off.”

When I hung up the phone I continued to peruse the internet looking at these rappers and there faces and all I could think was, “yea dad’s right, but you know what, they are still fucking cool looking.”

The reason I even thought the followed-by-million Dutchess may get back to me is because I happen to have met her brother in one of my classes last year. Like Dutchess, he grew up in Harlem in the 80’s in 90’s and saw the entire rise of hip hop. We developed a quick bond over it. The Dutchess’ brother has a large heart on his neck and two small initials right above his eyebrow. He preferred to not answer any questions about his tattoos but he said he would try and get a quote from Dutchess. However, we have spent hours of him telling me stories about his experience growing up immersed and apart of a culture that I’ve only participated in from a distance. I was immediately and continue to be attracted to his essence, which is inherently hip-hop. His tattoos are apart of that.

Dutchess’ brother did in fact get a quote, and surprisingly she had a similar angle as my father on face tattoos, “When I see a black person I think gang member, unemployed, or rapper. You better be able to get this money if you ink your face. Some people are going to hate face tattoos I understand that’s their right. They aren’t wrong. But it’s part of the culture. I love it but don’t support it.”

I think of my own love for the culture. I think of all the parties that I’ve been to with what seemed like hundreds of white kids screaming along to rap lyrics at the top of their lungs. I think of all of their parents, most of whom share the same opinions of face tattoos with my father. And I can’t help but think that face tattoos really do look cool on rappers, despite what upper-middle class white parents say. I think about myself, and my great interest in writing this article in the first place.

Maybe white hip-hoppers who are listening to the voiceless want that voice to get so loud that the people who try and ignore it can’t any longer.

I can’t seem to reach a conclusion about whether the influx of young white people in the hip hop culture as led to the influx of rappers with face tattoo’s. However there is something to the idea that spirit of hip hop lies in giving a voice to the voiceless, and for some reason, a whole population that was born with a voice, more specifically wealthier white people like me, who become infatuated with listening to the voice of the voiceless, want to see that voice get louder and louder. Maybe white hip-hoppers who are listening to the voiceless want that voice to get so loud that the people who try and ignore it can’t any longer. Maybe the volume before was saggy pants or flashy jewelry. Maybe that loudness right now is coming from face tattoos.

The Dutchess seems to agree, “The rise in face tattoos is a part of today’s social rebellion.” Maybe “getting money” is more than just a monetary currency. Typically when hip hop artist are getting money, they are getting heard. Forget whatever risk is involved about getting another job down the line, the oppressed communities need to be heard now. If face tattoos get people to pay attention, maybe that’s all that matters.