A design for life

David 'Dottsy' McKiernan has been tattooing the great and the good in Cavan Town for 13 years. Born in London but 30 years here, his shopfront has regular spectators as he goes about his craft. The Celt's Paul Neilan took a morning trip to Fat Spud tattoo parlour before opening to find myth-buster David prepping for a long day, which will see him work past closing times...

Anglo-Celt: What do tattoos mean to people today?

David 'Dottsy' McKiernan: For a lot of people it’s the thrill or the marker of the occasion, a map of where you’ve been - a milestone. It can be misunderstood, for example, I was on the radio recently and there was a slightly biased view - the interview itself was regarding the Cork camogie captain [2015 All-Ireland reigning champion Ashling Thompson, no less], who has the half-sleeve. She was on the front of the Examiner with it and a guy rang into the show saying that it was the most 'atrocious’ thing he had ever seen and that she should be stripped of her captaincy and never be allowed play again, a poor influence - that’s why they asked me to come on to get a fair shot but I wasn’t happy, there is still a bias out there even in terms of the comments that were read out: “filthy things” and so on.

AC: Who are the biggest icons influencing what people get?
DDMK: Just a few would be David Beckham, one of the most successful business and sports people, obviously, Rihanna, UFC, [wrestler] Randy Orton - those are the iconic guys but they are big shoes to step into in terms of the work that they have is quite extensive, but you will get guys who follow down that road.

AC: Is it illegal to get a tattoo if you’re under 18?
DDMK: No. Unfortunately not it’s at the discretion of they person doing it but it’s common sense to not tattoo someone so young - tastes change so fast at that stage. I get a lot of 18 or 19 year-olds that I will put off getting pieces, like behind the ear, or very close to places that will be on-show all the time, they haven’t made a career choice at that stage, so I will be turning them away depending on the style and placement of the piece. They aren’t thinking long-term but I can sleep at night over turning some people away in that I’ve not made a poor decision for them. It does get a bit hot and heavy if you say no to them because they don’t understand why you say no but it is better in the long-term.

AC: So, what are people getting?
DDMK: Chinese-style script was big for a while but now people have upped the ante in terms of scale so much, people are coming in, off-the-bat, looking for whole sleeves, an oriental dragon, maple leaves, things like that. If you look at footballers in the Premiership it’s nearly unusual for them not to have full sleeves now. You might have a guy who never had a tattoo in his life and he wants a half sleeve, you have to say to them 'have you really thought about it?’ Is it something you will want ten years from now?
Polynesian is massive again - traditional tribal because of the intricacy of it. New age tribal is pretty much gone - long bars, bones, blocks.

AC: When was the last time he did a barcode on the back of the neck, a la 1990s Henry Rollins?
DMK: I wouldn’t do a barcode now, full-stop because five years after you get it it will just be a black square, it’s not going to be a barcode anymore and the numbers underneath just merge. I have done one, but it was 18 inches long, and the bars were four inches long, maybe a centimetre wide and that was on a rib-cage with 'established 1972’ at the bottom, but that was the only one.
Now people are looking for movie characters more, Gizmo from Gremlins, things like that, black and grey roses, Americana stuff is popular - eagles, cut-throat razors, more going back to Rockabilly - scripts with italic fonts with an artistic flair to it.

AC: How personal can they be?
DDMK:The majority will mean something to people, for example, we had a charity do for Pink Ribbons - I had a variety of 20 designs - I started tattooing at 10 o’clock in the morning and didn’t finish until half past one the following morning and we had people of every walk of life - people who would never ever get a tattoo - purely on the basis of what it was and the day that was in it, people got tattooed. It was sensitive to them, they had either lost somebody or were affected themselves and they used it to mark the occasion as in 'I’ll remember the person’ or, 'I beat that [cancer]’. You’re not going to have that every time but obviously, the most poignant ones mean the most to people.

AC: Who gets tattoos?
DDMK: The majority are women. Men might have started out with for example, piercings and body modifications - dermal implants and things like that - and then women stepped in and took it one step further - far more than men at the minute and on bigger scales. Women are definitely two-to-one. The majority between 19 and 30, guys all sorts, but I had a lady of 75 getting her first tattoo, getting rosary beads. I think I was more terrified doing it than she was! Absolutely. It was on her wrist with a little cross sitting to one side. I have everybody from CEOs of companies, accountants, lawyers, soldiers, guards... everyone. Right across the spectrum.

AC: Any pieces you wouldn’t do?
DDMK: Oh yeah, some people wouldn’t get passed the door. That stuff. Thug-life stuff, I can’t support that kind of lifestyle. I’ve turned that away quite a few times and I never thought I would see as much of it here, supporting smoking, gangsterism - the LA gangster lifestyle, coming in with their trousers coming down on the backs of their knees. It doesn’t really wash with me.

AC: Are there any areas on the body legally prohibited?
DDMK: It’s not that they are prohibited, it’s that, if you think of it like a canvas, some are better than others. No two skin-types are the same, so there are portions that suit to work where it would be fantastic, with other areas it won’t work as well. Things like arm-pits with the lymph-nodes... you tend to stay away from that.

AC: Can the shutters go down if I want an Anglo-Celt tattoo on my bum?
DDMK: Well, it’s never happened, I can put up the screen but in general, you should be able to live with it on show!