We’re used to seeing tattooing reported on mainstream news sites when it covers topics surrounding celebrities or “cute” trends—however, when this story went viral we were pleasantly surprised by the change of pace. A tattoo artist named Belle Atrix was “discovered” by one of the major news networks (it’s too close to tell who broke the story first) and the world is currently reveling in how “edgy” and “extreme” her ink is. Now, before you start saying “we see people like her all the time,” we understand that to 99.9% of the world, Atrix is a strange and unusual specimen. However, to those immersed in the tattoo industry, we don’t bat an eyelash over someone with a face full of tattoos.
But there is something about Atrix’s story that caught our eye, something that we believed was a more compelling lead then “You Need to See This Girl’s Face Tattoos.” And based on the title, you probably have at least some idea where we’re going with this. That’s right, people on social media are arguing that Atrix’s tattoos, in particular, her blacked out bodysuit, are a form of cultural appropriation. We’re here to set the record straight in Atrix’s case and get down to the bottom of whether blackwork tattooing is racist.
