My Dear Friends of Inked I think it’s silly when they ask that if it hurts because obviously it hurts and another one that’s pretty silly that people ask is how do you think you’re gonna look when you get older i don’t i don’t really like that question too much how do you think when you get older i think i look amazing.
I mean clearly i i don’t really mind people’s opinions on how i look right now so as i age i i really think i’m gonna care even less my name is carmen matrice i’m 31 years old i live in upstate new york marine corps vet i work in the new york state correctional prison system.
And i’ve been getting tattooed for a little over 10 10 years or so i grew up in a in a relatively smaller town graduated in high school with about 80 kids small group of friends nothing crazy i mean my dad had some small tattoos on him here and there but.
I never seen anyone with like extreme tattoos so i was a little older uh yeah i think he had like a tribal because that’s that was big back in the 90s a lot of tribal stuff my dad’s pretty cool about it um my mom uh she’s not the biggest fan of tattoos but the first one that wasn’t really a big deal because it was well covered.
They think i’m they think i’m a little crazy now um even my dad he he didn’t think i’d get this far my mom she she hates it but she’s she gets up she’s getting over it she just says she she liked she liked the way her boy looked before she got.
All these tattoos but she’ll be fine i like the way i look so much better now with tattoos way better especially i’m so glad that i got the head tattoos well the reason i wanted to get tattooed is when i got out of um boot camp it seemed to be like a common thing for guys to do so my first tattoo was like.
The military tattoo so i just kind of started there and then it just kept building from there i have a an m16 on the on my left rib cage going from my hip all the way up to my armpit and i was super excited to get it and i worked my ass off to get uh through boot camp it was one of the tough toughest things.
I’ve ever done in my life so it’s kind of like a trophy to me almost the years where i was in the military i didn’t have any tattoos that were visible below my elbow so once i got out of the military it was uh i just went all in i did other big pieces on my uh my torso.
And some some work on my arms and just i just kind of kept building building these pieces and adding more and more and when i looked in the mirror i wanted complete and like i wanted symmetrical so i just did this arm this arm worked my way up and one thing led to another and here i am.
There are still meaningful tattoos i have on me but more so now i i find things that that i like like art that i like and i just kind of put put together ideas and just put it on me now.
I started working on my head i would say when i was like 26 or 27 i was whenever four or five years ago when i started losing my hair i did not like being bald i did not like going bald so my tattoo artist who did my neck he said what do you think we throw.
Uh this um this mask on the back your head see how it looks he did it he threw the stencil on i was like i love it i was like throw it on there he tattooed the stencil i didn’t like the way it looked by itself so eventually i did the sides and then i did the top and then i started working down and that’s how i got here.
I thought people would leave me alone when they see me and be like uh yeah i’m not talking to this guy but in fact more people come up to me asking me questions you would even the people you wouldn’t expect older older people i would think that they’d be like ah but so many people come how did that feel.
What made you do that i get so many questions bombarded sometimes people are most mostly respectful they definitely have their opinions um people are just curious what they of what they don’t know that’s what i how i feel people are curious of what they don’t understand or what they don’t know.
So that’s why they’re asking questions when i got out of the military i really wanted to join i want to be in the state police so i took all these tests and like i said before i my tattoos were conservative like when i was when i first started.
I ended up getting a job in the department of corrections where my dad works and luckily uh they had like no tattoo policy and and once i got in i just kind of like started tattooing everything and um.
Now and after that like i lost all opportunity to to go anywhere else but i don’t mind it because i prefer having all these tattoos to working somewhere that doesn’t let me have tattoos there’s nobody that i work with that looks like me i took this to the extreme and.
And i mean maybe i’ll maybe i’ll be the last one that does this because they don’t really like it that much how does being a very tattooed prison yard impact the interactions that you have with inmates um too much uh they do they do comment.
On my tattoos they they i’m they think it’s cool i mean they think it’s cool like the people i work with think it’s some some of them think it’s cool i mean it doesn’t really affect the relationship or the the interactions i have with.
With the incarcerated people that i work amongst i just once when i’m at work my i am a different person i leave this at the at the door i feel like people are with tattoos that are heavily tattooed are judged i would say it’s a lot less than i would assume before but i can see that the.
Older generation doesn’t really they think it’s very unprofessional to be tattooed but i hope i hopefully that that stigma will will fade away over time once i started working up my neck and and of my head definitely it was a it was a game changer i had my hands done for the most part before but i think.
Hands are a little more common now you see a lot of hand tattoos but i think for sure it’s like the neck and the head that is still like not too many people walk around like this so i have tattoos that i would i would fix but i don’t think i’d have any tattoos that i would change i’ve i’ve definitely.
Have something that i would like uh repair and maybe i didn’t go to uh the best artist for one or two uh tried to rush rush in and that’s definitely something i would wouldn’t do looking back i would tell myself uh wait if you have to wait to get into a good.
Artist do that don’t rush that’s that’s all really no i’m very happy with what i did they’re happy i’ve met a lot of good artists i i’m very happy with what i’ve done so far.
So not so much i mean i i would say to some people that just wait and find find the right artist do not rush like everyone always asks me who do you get tattooed by and and this that in the next and i know it’s like oh that’s too long of a.
Wait wait wait wait wait do not rush to get tattooed because you were gonna regret it most likely now it’s it’s it’s almost like work for me it’s not as exciting as it used to be like you get that first tattoo you get you’d be so excited but.
It’s just it’s just a process now and you’re sitting there up usually usually when i’m getting tattooed it’s up five six sometimes eight hours so it’s like you’re going to work here bringing all your stuff in with you it’s it’s not fun but it’s just what you got.
To do to reach the end goal at this point um i’m almost done with those big sessions thankfully but i’m still going to be going getting tattooed for a few hours here a few hours there i don’t think i’ll ever be done getting tattooed i’ll be when i’m even when i’m fully.
Covered i’m going to be i’m sure i’m going to be touching stuff up brightening stuff up i don’t think i don’t think i’ll ever be done i wish i’d be done i am sick of getting tattooed but at the same time i i do i do love it a little bit but.
I am sick of getting tattooed you
Everybody knows tattoos are incredibly common in prison, but most people are only thinking about the inmates when they make that assumption. Carmen works for the New York State Department of Corrections and is covered head to toe in ink. After getting his first tattoo as a celebration for making it through boot camp, the former Marine was hooked. Carmen shares his unique story with us for this episode of Heavily Inked.
Welcome to Heavily Inked. In our newest series, we’re going to speak one-on-one with tattoo collectors and artists about what it means to be a heavily inked person. We’ll get deep as we go through the motivations behind their tattoo choices, the way they’ve been treated in society and much more.
Carmen https://www.instagram.com/inked_carmen/
Presented by Mad Rabbit
https://www.madrabbit.com/
WEBSITE: http://www.inkedmag.com/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/inkedmag
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/inkedmag
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/inkedmag/