Tattoo Rebellion or Fashionable Accessory

(Ms) Brewer has an elaborate design on her chin that extends down to cover her neck. She got the initial tattoo almost 14 years ago, when she was 16, and completed it over several years with visits to apprentice tattoo artists from Vermont to Oregon. Though not actually a moko design, hers looks very similar to the chin tattoos historically favored by Maori women and women of other tribal cultures.

"I've always said it must be beard envy," Brewer jokes.

Local musician Holly Brewer, who started getting her face and neck tattoos 14 years ago, says reaction to the art has been mixed. (Evan Richman/Globe Staff) By James Sullivan Globe Correspondent / December 11, 2008

New Hampshire resident Dotty Jenkins doesn't mind the stares. Her hairless scalp is covered with an intricate, colorful web of tattooed images, including flowers, butterflies, and a striking pair of eyes, literally in the back of her head.

Jenkins started her tattoo collection because she has alopecia universalis, a condition that resulted in the loss of all the hair on her body several years ago. She recently won first prize in a tattoo contest sponsored by Salem's Peabody Essex Museum, in conjunction with "Body Politics," its exhibition on traditional Maori tattooing, or moko.

Just as Jenkins's tattoos are her way of reclaiming pride in her appearance, the Maori of New Zealand have been reclaiming their cultural heritage with their return to traditional face painting. Yet in America, where tattooing has become so commonplace that Angelina Jolie's latest ink grabs almost as much attention as her latest adoption, tattoos above the neck remain a topic of controversy, even among hardcore aficionados.

Tattoo artist Todd Close, who recently opened the Inkwell Body Art Studio in Amesbury and served as a judge in the Peabody Essex Museum's contest, says he does see facial tattoos on some of his colleagues in the business. He was particularly impressed with the work done on one acquaintance's snake tattoo, which wrapped around his eye. One recent visitor to his shop had an image of "some kind of horned animal" wrapped around his neck.

"It was bow-tie-ish, in the sense that you couldn't miss it," says Close. "No collar could cover it up."

Still, he says, facial tattoos are not something he has seriously considered offering.

"I did have a girl come in who wanted something on her ears," says Close, who declined to do the work. Instead, he asked her how she felt a prospective employer might feel about that kind of tattoo: "I said, is this going to change your life?"

Close himself has tattoos all over his body, though they're covered on this day by a pair of jeans and a big black hoodie. Plainly visible are the silver-dollar-sized disks stretching his ear piercings and a small ring inserted in one nostril.

But tattoos above the neck - that's where he draws the line.

"My wife would divorce me," he says with a smile.