1st Amendment Tattoo
By: Leslie Lopez
At the ripe old age of 15, Duchene received his first homemade tattoo, explaining that he’d long been attracted to under-the-skin inking—much inspiration coming from his military tatted family.
Duchene explains, “I’ve always been drawn to tattoos and traditional Americana style tattoos such as sailor tats.”
In addition to trad-Americana, Neo-traditional tattooing (often seen on bling’d-out Ed Hardy clothing) is also a style Duchene enjoys to sink his needle into.
But he considers his strength to be in his ability to communicate with his clients and hammer out ideas to reality. And as tattooing continues to become more mainstream vein than in-the-know subculture, Duchene feels that desensitization is a good thing.
“Tattooing is a form of expression that breaks people against what they are or aren’t supposed to do,” he says. “Branching out is a good thing for people and the permanence of the tattoo, whether good or bad, is a marker in time.”
What Duchene doesn’t like about the mass media’s popularization of the tattoo arts is the reality shows that depict a fallacy of the industry.
“Lots of tattoo artists are coming into the market and saturating the industry,” he laments. “Getting into the industry to only make money is disrespectful to those who have pioneered for tattooing. It’s not about money, it’s a lifestyle in many ways.”
1st Amendment Tattoo, 27911 Jefferson Ave., Temecula, (951) 587-6990, www.firstamendmenttattoo.net.
1st Amendment Tattoo, 25401 Madison Ave., Murrieta, (951) 696-6969.
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