Winger, Tara, Tattoo Parlor
THOMAS J. VI[SACK
GOVERNOR
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
SALLYJ. PEDERSON
LT. GOVERNOR
December 15, 2000
Tara Winger
1145 Cleveland Avenue
Dubuque, Iowa 52003-7511
Dear Tara:
Thank you for contacting us regarding your legal difficulties. Under our Constitution,
members of the Executive Branch have limited jurisdiction over matters pending in the court
system. While we sympathize with your situation, we are unable to give individual legal advice.
If you have not already done so, we would encourage you to seek legal advice to ensure that your
best interests are represented.
Best wishes and good luck.
Thomas J. Vilsack
Governor
Sincerely,
Sally J. Pederson
Lieutenant Governor
STATE CAPITOL
DES MOINES, IOWA 50319
515 281-5211
FAX 515-281-6611
that
· get a tattoo tn East Dubuque.
b°dy language
Tattoos: New store Sehmalfeldt uses three to five
needles bound together to draw
in rest Dubuque lines and seven to 13 needles to
d - - fill in outlines with color. As he
oas cus[o[]'] work ,~ .works, he dips the needles into
',::By BECKYS[SCO i~/~ ,[~gl brightly colored in~.
'~iTH ~affwdter ~~,, The needles penetrate the
~~~t about the thickness ora
EAST DUBUQUe} ~1I. ~ d' e. Theink goes between the
second and third layers.of the'
skin.
; With white walls and light,col-
ored floor tiles, Artistic Rebel~
lion Tattoos looks clean and
sterile. That's how owner Dave
Richardson wants customers to
think of his store, too.
"We have hospital-like ster-
ilization here," he said. "We use '
an autoclave that's monitored
by the, University of Iowa. Each
month we send a test down
there."
Richardson also wants cus-
tomers to know that he employs
a couple of the best tattoo
artists around. The left wall of
"We also do custom work
here," Richardson said. Cus-
tomers can have portraits of
their loved ones tattooed on
them. Tattpos range in price
~ hammered out an~t
'hence ~egulating tattoo bust2]
Inside one of three rooms,
Sehmalfeldt prepares his
customers' skin for tattooing.
Tattooing is a form of art, ac-
cording to Schmalfeldt.
~se the same princigle~ -of de-
mgn, color and composition as
in any other art form/' he said.
"Of all the artistic mediums I've
tried, this is the hardest to do."
Each person's skin is unique,
requiring the artist to adjust his
techniques for each client, he
said. According to Sehmalfeldt,
'the neck is the most difficult
area to tattool because the skin
is thick and crinkled and
tlhe shop is filled with 8-by-ll cause people find it difficult to
inch samples of the Work they keep their necks still.
can do. Some are complex, -He said he prefers bn
brightly ~olored;- thre~dimen ............ ~ !g~t,
- oma ~a~toos, as eVir~enced by
~-si0nal d~Signs. Others are as the yellow and red flames that
¢¢~'~nple as plain, black line shoot up his left leg. "I like a
drawings.
tattoo yon can see across the
room and know what it is," he
Richardson said that
Sehmalfeldt and his other
tattoo artist, James "Blue"
Bounds~learned their craft from
the besi. Typically, tattoo artists
learn by serving as apprentices
to other artists. They tattoo
themselves before they try their
art on anyone else.
Does it hurt? "You fee1 it. It
hurts a littIe," Schmalfeldt said.
"It's more annoying than any-
thing. If you reaIly want a
First he cleans the skin with tattoo, you can deal with it."
surgical soap then shaves it and - ~tattoo
with rubbing alcohol ~~ re~n~
finally traces the tattoo ~But he has several tat-
pattern onto the skin. toos, including a detailed image
Ne, xt, he removes several nee- of a bear on his left forearm.
dles from protective packages R'ichardson who own~ ~
r~ned,~tta,c,h_e.s therh to a "tattoo ~ O~hop in Clint0n.~
acmne. 'Anne machine is about ~ened th~shop i~,
_aSr.large, as a~ hand and consists ~u~ePbeeausa~-h*~
· nPe~car~y o~,two electro-mag- ~and or i'L "Everv-
c cons. ~ne coils lo0k like 5ody said we needed some gored
small coin dispensers. The ma- artists around here," he said.
Chine vibrates as the needles People must be 21 or Older to
penetrate the skin. get a tattoo in East Dubuque.
John Schmalfeldt, of East Dubuque, IIh, is a' tattoo artist at Artistic Rebellion Tattoos, a tatt(~o shop
that opened [ecent y in East D.buque. ~]'Ti~ ~' ~_~/_~ ~L/~,~--r~-~ / .:~.-,