Tatt’s nice: Customer ‘Tom’ has new tattoos applied at Ink Tattoo Studio.
JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
Geelong is experiencing rapid growth in urban subcultures, fuelling high demand for tattoos, music and fashion, according to youth officers and retailers.
Tattooist Gene Gardiner said the city now attracted a variety of sub-cultures.
“Geelong has really embraced tattoos, for instance, more than most places in Australia,” Mr Gardiner said.
“There are a dozen or more studios or artists operating now. There was less than a handful before.”
Mr Gardiner, who operates Ink Tattoo Studio, said young people were “bombarded” with celebrities and sports stars with tattoos.
“People aren’t moving away to the big city these days. Younger kids are sticking around, living at home and so they have money to spend.”
Purple Cow Clothing owner Nick Austin said his store was catering for young people using fashion as an expression of individuality.
“It used to be underground but Geelong’s subcultures have grown over time,” Mr Austin said.
“Skating, tattoos, hardcore music, all were once seen as troublesome but have now become different ways for people to express themselves.
“They’re saying ‘We’re not bad asses, even if we look like it’. They’re just not afraid to be who they are.”
Mr Austin said urban subcultures were marrying sport, social interests, technology and fashion with a greater weight of numbers than ever before.
“Being an independent store, it’s up to us to be unique if we want to survive in a monopolised world. That flexibility to be unique makes us strong – we’ll sell five items instead of 500 but we can bring in a much wider variety of styles.”
Popular skating website Three Thousand lauded Geelong’s waterfront skate park as “the best in Victoria, if not Australia”.
The website credited the facility with stimulating the popularity of skating in Geelong.
Shinto Tattoos owner Jason Stewart said social media and television shows like Miami Ink had stimulated the growth of urban subcultures.
“Youth are the new surge in customers and tattoo artists, whether they are up to it or not, are cashing in on the trend,” Mr Stewart said.
Professional Tattooing Association of Australia national secretary Patsy Farrow said the art form once had a social stigma.
“People thought if you had a tattoo you were a biker or a sailor but now it has become mainstream. There’s been a significant shift in people’s attitudes.”
Geelong Regional Library youth support officer Brendan Boniface said widespread use of social media was spreading the rise of urban subcultures.
“We’re trying to respond to the numbers of youth now involved in urban subcultures,” he said.
“Geelong has been rocked by a few sad incidences involving cyber-bullying and we need to bring some understanding and awareness to the situation.
Mr Boniface said a theatrical production called Love Drunk at Drysdale’s Potato Shed in June would seek to raise awareness of the traps in the nightlife scene.
