print edition

Feature
8
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O R TH
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A R O L I N A
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E N TR A L
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Campus Echo
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2005
IV E RS ITY
Photo essay by Carla Aaron-Lopez
very “body” has a story. Tattoos are
people’s stories written into their
skins and Justin Cox is their
storyteller.
Cox, a Santa Cruz, Ca., native, is touring
the country, tattoo shop by tattoo shop. For
now, he’s the visiting artist at Dogstar
Tattoo Company, on Durham’s Ninth Street.
When Cox isn’t tattooing, he’s drawing;
when he isn’t drawing, he’s tattooing.
Pierre Batchler, N.C. Central University
history and English senior, walked into
Dogstar on Sept. 24 looking for a custom
tattoo of Africa.
This was Batchler’s first tattoo.
Cox is a natural artist and was receptive
to Batchler’s idea for a symbol of Africa —
with a lion, a black fist, a hundred dollar
bill and a black man and woman within the
dark continent.
He designed Batchler’s idea, transferred
it onto his skin and proceeded to make it
permanent on his body.
Batchler flinched from time to time but
quickly “manned up” to the pain.
This isn’t a kid’s lick-on tattoo. This is life:
blood, steel, pain.
And it is so “rock star.”
E
The tattoo artist preps his tools like a surgeon. Sterilization is essential. Period.
Tattoo artist Justin Cox laughs at a joke from Pierre Batchler. Batchler was nervous at first
about getting his tattoo, but soon realized it doesn’t hurt as much as his friends told him.
Well, maybe it does hurt just a little. It depends on where the tattoo goes.
There are sensitive places that can feel like white heat is being pressed into your body.
The finished product of Batchler’s version of Africa left him impressed and a little addicted to the body art form.