Unplanned America: Nipple tattoos, removing gang signs and new ink

FORGET full sleeve tatts and tramp stamps, a new breed of tattoo artist is making cancer survivors whole again, with amazing results. WARNING: Nudity.

New nipples making women whole again

WARNING: Nudity.

IN the past few years tattoos have become ubiquitous. They are bloody everywhere.

I actually saw a full sleeve tat on a kid in a school uniform at a Westfield the other day! Sneaking a photo of him and his young friends walking through the shopping mall, for the purposes of this article would’ve been highly inappropriate, so you’ll just have to trust me. And I wish I could say it was a shocking sight but I didn’t feel confronted in the least. Inked up limbs, chests and necks are everywhere and fashion has made it a flippant decision for many of the population to get marked for life.

But for others the act of getting tattooed restores them to what they once were. We met Dawn while travelling in America for our show. She was having new nipples tattooed on, after surviving breast cancer and having a double mastectomy.

Dawn, three times affected by cancer is a self-proclaimed cancer warrior, and rightly so. But what Dawn sees as a very important part of her female identity and feminine sexuality was taken away due to her mastectomy. Although partially restored through breast implants she was still missing the all-important ‘pink parts’, her nipples, which doctors are not able to restore.

Enter Jeanee Lusby and the team at Naturalook Permanent Cosmetics in San Diego. As soon as we walked in the door of the clinic we felt a sense of warmth and welcoming. Well actually they gave us beers when we got there and that’s a sure fire way to get us on side but trust me these were damn nice and nurturing women. And highly skilled.

Jeanee has worked her whole career perfecting her craft and though her hyper-realistic 3D areola tattoos seem nothing short of miraculous, she makes it look easy. And for Dawn, her hopeful victory over breast cancer, the double mastectomy and resulting breast reconstruction, this really was the cherry on top.

But Jeanee wasn’t the only tattoo master we wanted to visit in America. As ‘marked men’, myself, Gonz and Parv make the commitment to getting ourselves inked on camera at one of the most legendary tattoo shops in the world.

Simply put, The Shamrock Social Club is owned by one of the coolest most badass legends we have ever met in our lives, a man who looks like a 1950s gangster with a heart of gold, Mark Mahoney.

He’s been in the game since working for the ruthless bikers clubs of the ‘70s and has tattooed Lady Gaga, Brad AND Angelina, Sid Vicious and now the equally troubled Tim Gonzo Ryan. Bruce Willis’ daughter Rumer was actually the customer before Gonz.

I myself got inked by the masterful Dr. Woo, my obvious celebrity status enabling me to skip past his 6 month waiting list, which puts me up there with some of my contemporaries: rap lord Drake, Zoë Kravitz and (ahem) One Direction.

Parv got his work done by an extremely talented up-and-comer, Louie Perez III.

Perez’ Latino heritage and skill with the needle sets him up strongly as the latest incarnation of artists honouring the California prison-bred ‘black and grey fine line’ technique that this shop specialises in.

While we were stoked with our ink, some people’s tattoos signal a dark past they’d rather forget. Which leads us to our next destination, Homeboy Industries in downtown Los Angeles.

A big, burley priest, Father Grey Boyle, now known by his homies as G-Dog established his charity outreach organisation after seeing way too many lives being ruined by a desperate attraction to gang culture, which is still alive and kicking.

The opening of Homeboy’s tattoo removal clinic was inspired by one particular reformed criminal complaining that he was having trouble finding a job to start his new life. The reason? He had his one time credo, ‘F**K THE WORLD’ tattooed, in huge letters, right across his forehead.

Since then Father Greg and his team of selfless volunteers have helped hundreds of thousands of men and women shed their gang-tattooed skin and the pasts that once haunted them, creating a future that is inspiring for them and beneficial for the whole city.

Unplanned America screens tonight (Tuesday) at 9pm on SBS 2 and is available on SBS OnDemand. Series One is on Netflix.