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Being Tattooed Saves Time
Interview with Alexx Thompson
Alexx was first exposed to tattoos when he was around 13 years old. His father had an interest in photography and took Alexx and his brother to an exhibit of color photos of heavily tattooed Japanese men.
"I remember staring in awe, and the idea of the body as a piece of canvas stuck with me. Unbeknownst to my father at the time, that gallery visit had planted a seed."
But it wasn't until Alexx was 19 that he started to allow that seed to grow from a vision to a physical reality.
"My friend Justin had made a tattoo gun and started tattooing out of his garage and I willingly got in line. My first tattoos didn't really have too much meaning to me. I got a black widow spider on my back, which is now barely visible though some clouds, a skull, and spider web on my shoulder.... and a few others that have since been covered. I do plan to leave some of my earlier work uncovered always as a sort of photo album of my past to remember who I was and be aware of who I am today."
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A few years later Alexx began work on his back. The designs he chose were partly influenced by his mother's openness regarding spirituality and the access she gave him, when he was growing up, to numerous books dealing with all sorts of people's beliefs. Over time, says Alexx, a scene of "apocolyptic nature featuring different religious views of the end of the world and their different deities coming down in a frenzy on judgement day began to take shape - the hand of 'god' reaching down to save humanity in its last great gasp of air before its decline, and a looming alien face in nature oversees the goings-on while spaceships circle their way down. The map of Africa serves a dual purpose, representing my heritage as well as sitting in the center representing the beginnings of humanity while surrounded by the end."
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All of Alexx's tattoos have meaning - the spiral on his neck signifies that all things move in cycles, the Celtic work reminds him to stay in balance. "The Klansman hanging from the tree on my other triceps I got when I was 21 supporting my strong views on ignorance and racism - notice too that the white dove of peace flies above the whole scene."
He still has a way to go on his backpiece before he gets it to where he wants it to be. He's just coming off a three-year "vacation" from tattooing and got his most recent piece a few months ago, the Islamic 7 circle design on his forearm.
Most of Alexx's work - the KKK guy, lions pulling the chariot, Celtic wrist band, Celtic knot on his back, capital building on right triceps, alien head and UFOs, Celtic on inside of arm, tribal on left arm (cover-up) was inked by Mike Stobbe. The clouds and lightning on his back are by Fip Buchanan. His Africa, the hands, skull, and the web on his shoulder are by Justin Frankfather, the swirl on back of his neck is by Mike Sirot, and Roni Zulu did Alexx's Islamic circles.
Alexx says his mom doesn't like his tattoos at all, doesn't even want to look at them really, but she's thankful he's putting more thought into what he gets than when he did when he was younger. And as far as people in general go, "some are curious, some are standoffish. An old lady once told me I would go to Hell for desecrating my body and started reading scripture out of the Bible. I kinda laughed and said that if there was a God, the God I know would be interested in my soul and not my body. And if he/ she did see my body we would chill and have a cool conversation about it."
"People are funny. And one of the great things about tattoos is that it quickly lets me know if someone is coming from a judgmental space or an open-minded space... I have no time in my life for judgmental people, so I've found being tattooed saves me time."
- Leo Green
