Body image: are tattoos taboo?

Salvador Dali had his mustache, Andy Warhol had his wig, and Wendy O. Williams had her duct tape. Artists have always drawn outside the lines in their work and their lives, decorating themselves as an extended form of creative expression. Over the years, the age-old art of tattooing has gained new currency, growing increasingly popular as an individual--and indelible--declaration of self. If you're a painter, a writer, a comic, of a rock star, you can ink yourself as often as you like, but if you're a working dancer, your body is your instrument. Beyond movement, how much freedom do you have to express yourself with it?

Dance companies are more lenient about tattoos than you might expect, and certainly more so than they once were. Urban Ballet Theater artistic director Daniel Catanach, for example, has no objections to his dancers having tattoos, and didn't think tattoos would have been a problem when he danced with Karole Armitage. But when he danced at the School of American Ballet and Kansas City Ballet, he said the dancers would scarcely have dared. "We were too afraid," he said. "We didn't do anything--we didn't even speak."

Ballet companies aren't necessarily more strict about tattoos than modern companies, though. In fact, many major ballet companies--New York City Ballet, Miami City, Ballet, Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet among them--have no written policy about dancers with tattoos, although company representatives say they do expect those dancers to exercise common sense with every role. (As one company administrator put it, "Obviously, Siegfried doesn't have a tattoo.")

San Francisco Ballet spokesperson Kyra Jablonsky said they have no official policy but, like tans or very short hair for women, "If someone changes their look in a way that is drastically different from the look of the company, they will be expected to cover it up or fix it. Women with really short hair wear falls for romantic roles; those with tans powder themselves, and tattoos are covered with makeup."

That's the case at Houston Ballet, says corps de ballet member Peter Gleeson. He agrees that a tattoo would look out of place in a classical ballet, although he has danced for contemporary choreographers who liked his tattoos and incorporated them into the costuming. "Everyone has their idea of what's beautiful of cool," he said. Gleeson got the Chinese symbol for dance imprinted on his lower back when he was a student in Houston's ballet academy. Before he began dancing, he had a large dragon's head tattooed on his shoulder. Recently he had his family's coat of arms tattoed on his other shoulder. He sees his tattoos as a natural extension of his dancing journey. "Tattoos mark a time and place in your life," he says. "They're a road map." He can think of at least a half-dozen other dancers in his company who have tattoos too. "It's really a large part of our culture," he said "A tattoo creates something more personal; it helps you stand out, and catch a person's eye."

Brian McCormick, a critic and the managing director of nicholasleichterdance (See "25 to Watch," January 2002, page 67) agrees, but it's the eye-catching aspect that he objects to. "For a viewer it can be distracting," he said. "It's their bodies, but it pricks you out of your viewing of what's happening. It's like 'Oh, what is that?' I saw a dancer recently with a really beautiful costume but she had a tattoo on her back, and it didn't look like the costume was designed with that in mind. It got in the way of what was happening movement-wise."

McCormick said Leichter's company has no rules about tattoos, and wouldn't rule out a dancer for having one. But because the work, non-narrative "pore" dance, "is very much about the group and the relationships in the group," nobody wears jewelry onstage, and dancers would be asked to cover tattoos. None of the company's dancers have visible tattoos, although some have piercings, which they remove before performances for partnering safety as well as for aesthetics. "The body is a vehicle of communication," McCormack said. "I guess that's really the main issue for me."

Dancer-choreographer Kriota Willberg takes a similar position. "As an audience member during performances, I've often found that something like a tattoo catches nay eye, and if I like it, I stop watching the dancing, and start watching the tattoo itself move around the stage. This pushed me to decide to put my tattoo on my hip, so that it could be hidden if need be," she says.

Kimani Fowlin, who teaches at Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts, argues that tattoos transform the body into living art. Fowlin's back is tattooed with Kali Ma, the Hindu goddess of dance and destruction, and she has a snake-like form near her pelvis. She round no problems at M'zawa Danz, a mix of modern, hip-hop, and African dance led by a tattooed choreographer, Maia Claire Garrison. The same was true of African company Harambee and the modern choreographer Andrea E. Woods, although the wardrobe in Woods' period pieces required that the dancers cover up anyway. "It's a part of me," said Fowlin, who also has nose and navel piereings. "If they tell me that [I can't have them], I know that I can't be a part of that company."

Bradley Shelver also got his tattoos with dance specifically in mind. Shelver has performed with Ailey II, Elisa Monte Dance, Complexions, and as a guest artist with ballet companies. He got his tattoos his first year in New York: Like Gleeson, he has the Chinese symbol for dance tattooed on one ankle, and a pair of footprints surrounded by the sun tattooed on his hip. At Ailey, he was told to cover them up; with Monte, whose work he says "is all about the physical body and its beauty," the director let the dancers show them. "I have always felt that dance would stay in my life and therefore with me forever," he said. "I wanted to take that a step further, so that people could know the importance it has in my life. I consider them to be a reminder of how difficult but emotionally rewarding dance is."

Most dancers have not found their tattoos to be a problem in getting roles. "I've never been turned down because of my tattoos," said Fabio Tavares, a performer with Streb. "In some cases, choreographers even want to show the tattoos. Only one time was I required to cover a tattoo, and I think it had more to do with the character in the piece than the choreographer's preference."

Tamieca McCloud, a former Pilobolus dancer and artistic director of Restless Native Dance, agrees. "I haven't been turned down because of my tattoos--or nay brow piercing--at least not to nay knowledge," she notes.

So how do dancers reconcile their love of tattoos with their love of dance? Creatively, of course. Some get tattooed in less visible places, like Michael Waiters, who had his hips tattooed after he left Juilliard and before he landed a job with Nederlands Darts Theater, which be described as fairly conservative. When she needs to, Fowlin covers her ink with costumes or regular foundation. Gleeson has used flesh-colored tape, and he's partial to Ben Nye tattoo cover-up. "It's a very thick, heavy makeup," he said. "I usually do two layers plus setting powder. If you take time to match the skin color, you can be standing next to someone and they won't even know."

Most dancers have a good sense of what's appropriate, said Gleeson's boss, Houston Ballet artistic director Stanton Welch. "I've never heard of a policy in my travels. There's always someone with a tattoo, and they always cover them up. I don't know how fashionable they were--it's definitely a fashion now. The funny part is, they're not that visible in the audience. You think everyone can see them but they just look like a birthmark."

Welch said he has seen tattoos incorporated into the work. "We've had costumes where we actually made tattoos--X, at The Australian Ballet, and Taiko at San Francisco Ballet. It's no problem as long as, depending on the ballet, dancers can cover them up."

Welch doesn't have any himself, although he has contemplated getting one. The problem, he said wryly, is that, "You have to have a body part that will stay the same shape for the rest of your life. I don't know what that would be on me."

Heather Wisner, a former DM associate editor, is a freelance writer.