Tattoos are never just skin-deep: they are created from a pact between an artist and a living canvas: a journey where pain, pleasure, beauty, self-expression and freedom blend into unforgetable images, colors, moods and passionate feeling.

I want to get a tattoo!!!

This was what I was thinking on my one hour travel back to ABS-CBN compound after spending a few hours with a big flock of tattooed people at the A Venue in Makati City on Saturday, for the "Dutdutan '08" tattoo expo. 

It was an exhilarating experience seeing that many people getting drunk and getting their bodies pierced with tiny, dreadful inked needles.

Whenever I see a tattooed man, I’d say to myself, “Yabang!” and if it’s a girl, “He-he-he.” Talking to some of the most interesting people I saw at the gathering, I’m a changed man.

The former presidential guard Willy San Diego was one of those people. The man was as humble a tattooed man can be, but he was proud of his craft.

He was still in high school when he started giving and collecting tattoos, and it stopped when he landed a job as an agent of the Presidential Security Group.

Willy told me during our brief talk that "it really feels good especially if you're doing what you really like." Instantly, right after talking with him, I envied the guy. He's living the kind of life he wants to and he's earning big bucks.

Alex Rodolfo, one of the alternating artists of Inkcentric shop along Recto in Manila, told me he earns a minimum of P15,000 and a maximum of P60,000 a month.

Just like Willy, Alex has been an artist since he was young, back when only ex-convicts and drug addicts sported tattoos.

He said he started with on-the-spot poster making contests during his school days,  until he got hooked with tattooing and became a desciple of the master, Ricky Sta. Ana, president of the Philippine Tattoo Artists' Guild (Philtag).

After talking with Willy, I spotted a simple-looking girl Cecilia Gomez, who was wearing a Morbid Tattoo T-shirt while participants in the Dutdutan '08 where waiting to be ushered into the A Venue building.

Dutdutan or the tattoo expo is a bi-annual event which was started by Alfred Guevarra of Murari Productions and Philtag in 2004.

The Dutdutan people said they decided to hold the tattoo expo in Makati City to expose the tattoo industry and boost their campaign of erasing discrimination against tattooed people.

Serious artists

I was taking pictures of artists puncturing tattoo collectors when I saw Cecilia again, this time, her back exposed with an awesome-looking tattoo.

Cecilia allowed me the pleasure of taking pictures of her bare, well, not really bare, back. Her back was covered with a dragon and a woman tattoo.

Interviewing the 21-year-old girl, my previous notions about girls with tattoos were instantly turned around. As what they call themselves, Cecilia is a collector. A serious collector of art--bloody and painful art.

She said she never gets a tattoo simply because it looks cool or she wants to look sexy.

"Hindi siya fashion statement. Ang nasa likod ko, it means something para sa akin. Dragon means strength and the girl means tranquility."

She's one of the more than a dozen girls who walked the makeshift ramp inside the A Venue building to show off her tattooed backs to the audience.

The audience was in awe, and shouting, not because she's pretty and almost half naked. They were all looking straight at her tattooed back.

It was the same unexpected reaction from an almost all-male tattooed crowd when other half-naked and tattooed girls walked on the ramp.

A European who went all the way to the Philippines to join the tattoo expo said aside from the pain, he collects tattoos because of the art.

He said every image painfully punctured into his skin have a meaning. It's like his body is a museum of meticulously selected paintings.

Release

Camille Sta. Ana, wife of the master, in a very brief interview told me she willingly goes through the painful process of getting a tattoo to release her frustrations in life.

"Para pag may mga hinanakit ka sa loob na hindi mo mailabas, nakakaluwag eh," she said.

Camille said their tattoos are a reflection of their personalities and what kind of people they are.

At that moment, I wanted to go to one of the booths and have my back tattooed.

Expensive art

What held me off getting a tattoo that day was the price tag.

A medium sized arm tattoo costs P8,000 and a full-back and colored tattoo costs up to P80,000.

Chris Verzosa, a tattoo collector, said a small-sized and colorful tattoo is priced at P1,000, depending on the design.

Willy, the ex-presidential guard, said tattoos are expensive because of the equipment and to make sure collectors are safe from blood-borne diseases.

He said artists are like doctors. They have to get accredited by Philtag before starting as a professional tattoo artist.

He said Philtag, in partnership with the Department of Health, implements very strict regulations to assure the safety of tattoo collectors.

In the Philippines, Willy said tattoo artists use disposable needles for each client. Expensive tattoo inks are used for only one collector and they have to have a supply of anti-bacterial liquid soap, the same “green soap” used in hospitals. The green soap is used to wipe off the blood during the actual tattooing.

After all is said and done, Dutdutan 2008 made it clear to me: Tattoos, for those who are really into them, are never just skin-deep. Surrendering oneself to the tattoo artist, paying a hefty fee, enduring the cramped muscles and the painful process--vanity is actually the least of all considerations. 

Instead, real tattoo artists and tattoo collectors are engaged in a journey towards the creation of art, a mutual pact between an artist and a living canvas: it is a journey where pain, pleasure, beauty, self-expression and freedom all come together into unforgetable images, colors, moods and passionate feeling.