#TattooInspiration

– Arkansas tattoos have been popular for at least a decade among Arkansans.
– Razorback tattoos have been popular, but Arkansas tattoos are more topographical and represent geography and home.
– They range from simple outlines with a star or heart marking a hometown to more elaborate designs involving landmarks or area codes.
– Some individuals get Arkansas tattoos to raise money for shows or promote Arkansas-based events and music.
– People get Arkansas tattoos to show pride and love for their state.
– State outline tattoos are more appealing if the state’s borders are geometrically pleasing.
– Designs that merge the state outline with various symbols and logos are becoming more personalized.
– Examples include a blue Converse shoe inside the state outline, apple blossoms representing the state flower, and the Wu-Tang Clan’s logo with the words “Wu Tang Sooie” in the center.
– Some people get Arkansas tattoos as a commitment or a rite of passage, showing their love for the state.
– Some tattoos also symbolize the concept of home, as many people who have moved away from Arkansas still feel a connection to their home state.
– Scott Diffee’s tattoo studio, The Parlor, is located in Rose City outside of North Little Rock.
– Diffee has been in the Arkansas tattoo scene for two decades.
– Diffee and partner Alina Bennett live upstairs and operate The Parlor downstairs.
– The Parlor is a small but busy shop in an old beauty parlor in a low-income neighborhood.
– Diffee worked on a young man who is studying to become a high school art teacher.
– Bennett was tattooing a second Arkansas tattoo on a regular customer named Anthony Buckelew.
– Buckelew got his first tattoo at The Parlor a few years ago, which was a state outline with a red line down the center representing Arkansas’s Interstates 40 and 30.
– Buckelew now has 30 tattoos and his second Arkansas tattoo is a state outline with “501” in the center.
– Buckelew sees his tattoos as representations of the streets he knows so well.
– Meredith Martin-Moats has an ongoing project called the Us Tattooed Kids: Arkansas Project and encourages people to share their Arkansas tattoos and stories.