In Ink Spot, Amy Price stops strangers in Dallas to shoot, and learn about, their body art.
Needles, blood, piercing flesh and beautiful body art always remind me of my favorite Dallas piercer, 28-year-old Steven Haddad at Last Angels. And while he is a phenomenal peircer, he can make any painful piercing feel more at ease through his wit and on-the-edge humor. A glimpse into his not-so-politically-correct banter can be seen throughout his tattoos.
See also: A Barcadia Bartender Shows Off Her Many Tattoos (Photos) (NSFWish)
I asked Haddad what his funniest tattoo was. He pulled his lip down to show me a faint, cartoon-like design of two drumsticks and a small wedge of watermelon. "That's probably the funniest one," he said. "Because I'm black."
Tattooed on this inside of both pointer fingers are two wooden magic wands inspired by Harry Potter. "I am a huge Harry Potter fan," Haddad told me while waving them in the air Potter-style.
On his left knee Haddad has a barrage of weapons from a grenade to guns with a banner reading: "love thy neighbor."
"It's ironic - it's got a bunch of weapons!"
On his opposing knee he has a similar tattoo, but it says "ruv thy neighbor." Haddad said he lived in Japan for three years when he was younger and many of his tattoos have some kind of Asian theme. He calls his right leg his "funny Asian leg."
Along side his knee tattoo is the molecule for MSG, a Hello Kitty in a pig suit, a sake bomb, and a dainty toothpick set delicately inside a square piece of tofu. "That's my angry tofu because tofu is the most disgusting thing ever."
Hadded's other artwork includes many other tattoos influenced by Asian culture, like his cherry blossom/maple tree, suicide Geisha, and samurai.
Haddad has been passionately professionally poking holes in people's bodies for the past 6 years.
"The best part about my job is that it's awesome. I love what I do, really I do, I get to make people pretty all day."
His easy-going personality reflects throughout his body art, and he said he cannot really pin point any profound meaning to any of them.
"I'm not going to sit here and try and say this one means this and this one means that because it's not true I get them because they look cool and I want them."
