In a city where dental floss is acceptable beachwear, it is no surprise that Rio de Janeiro has plenty of flesh for the inking. Rio Ink is the latest body art reality show to hit the airwaves.
It is a Discovery Channel spinoff of the original hit “Miami Ink” on TLC and, like the original, it follows five tattoo artists as they go about their work.
The Rio …
What do gangs and tattoos have in common? In short, pain and permanence.
In many countries around the world, tattoos developed as a way to identify prisoners and ostracize them from law-abiding society. Tattoos were imprinted on inmates to not only identify them as felons, but also to identify the crimes they committed. Prisoners capitalized on the fear and stigma associated with body art and used that as a source of pride.
Tattoos came to symbolize both the gory and the …
