Every tattoo tells a story. On Liesl Petersen鈥檚 back, the Stawamus Chief rises above a shimmering Howe Sound where a dolphin leaps, just off her hip. High above the Chief on her left shoulder floats a blue heron. For Petersen, a painter, the tattoo tells the story of her arrival and her awe of this place.
鈥淚t is what drew me here,鈥� Petersen says while standing in her aquamarine and white Airstream, which sits in the shadow of the Chief in downtown Squamish.
鈥淚 came from Alberta and I moved here, I came around the corner and saw the Chief and had this completely involuntary emotional outpouring. I have never had an emotional reaction to scenery before in my life.鈥�
In Squamish, the story people tell with their tattoos is often about nature, says local tattoo artist Steve Cole, who gave Petersen her whole-back tattoo at Ashlar Tattoo in downtown Squamish.
鈥淲ay more outdoorsy, nature-themed,鈥� says Cole when describing the type of tattoos 麻豆社国产clients request.
鈥淢ountains, streams, ocean, things that reflect active lifestyle, lots of skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, windsurfing 鈥� lots of elements like wind, water, rain and trees.鈥�
Sitting in a 1946, Chicago-made barber鈥檚 chair in his tattoo studio in downtown Squamish, Cole recalls how he got into tattooing in the first place.
鈥淢y friend came to school with a tattoo magazine that was filled with stuff that wasn鈥檛 your traditional biker, skulls, pinups, wartime stuff, and I was just blown away,鈥� says Cole, 44. 鈥淚t flipped a switch and I became really interested in it.鈥�
He鈥檚 been tattooing for 19 years now, five of those years in Squamish.听
People of all kinds come in to get inked, Cole says 鈥� 鈥渢he full demographic, right from the highest professional Supreme Court judges down to your gnarliest crusty, punk kid is coming in.鈥�
The minimum age to get a tattoo is 18, according to Cole, who says he has inked people of all ages from 18 to tattoo enthusiasts in their 70s.
Relatively new 麻豆社国产tattoo artist Lauren Bryce says you have to be confident to be a tattoo artist. 鈥淭he only time I got nervous was when I was going to tattoo my mom,鈥� Bryce says with a laugh.
鈥淵ou have to be confident to tattoo; you can鈥檛 really hesitate. Confidence is definitely key in marking somebody for the rest of their lives.鈥�
Bryce, 28, who also works out of Ashlar Tattoo, says many of her clients are female.
鈥淚 have tattooed a lot of moms and daughters,鈥� she says, adding she too notices the landscape theme of 麻豆社国产tattoo requests.
鈥淚 have done my fair share of mountain ranges, that kind of scenery,鈥� she says. 鈥淎 lot of wildflowers and things that are a little less traditional.鈥�
Mayor Patricia Heintzman鈥檚 sea turtle created out of tiny hibiscus flowers above her right ankle marked an important birthday.
鈥淔or my 40th birthday, I thought I needed a bit of a momentous thing,鈥� she says of the tattoo she got in North Vancouver about a decade ago.
She had been inspired to get the sea turtle permanently inked while on vacation on the Gal谩pagos Islands.
鈥淭here was a dead sea turtle there, and the guides were there, and it had ingested loads of plastic bags, and so it was emblematic of environment and climate change and sort of my spirit animal,鈥� Heintzman says. 鈥淲henever I scuba dive and see a sea turtle, they are so graceful and calm and purposeful in the water.鈥�
District of 麻豆社国产Councillor Susan Chapelle met her husband thanks to one of her tattoos, she says. She has the 1970s Dr. Seuss character the Lorax tattooed on her stomach. In the story, the Lorax speaks for the trees and nature.
"He says, 鈥業 was always looking for the girl with the Lorax tattoo,鈥欌�� Chapelle recalls.
She also has Leonardo da Vinci鈥檚 Vitruvian Man on her back.
鈥淚 think celebrating moments that are memorable with art is beautiful,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t is possible to change and evolve, but we all come from stories. Some of us like sharing our stories.鈥�
Councillor Peter Kent has two tattoos, one of which is a horse he got on his right arm when he was 17. He and some high school friends decided to go get tattoos in Vancouver.
鈥淚 have been on horses since I was a year old,鈥� Kent explains, adding a relative owned a ranch in the Cariboo. 鈥淚 was conceived there and raised there and spent a lot of time there as a kid on horseback.鈥�
Kent says although he was young the first time he was inked, he never regretted it.
When he was a stunt double for Arnold Schwarzenegger, the tattoo had to be covered up, which prevented Kent from wanting another tattoo until he was no longer working with the action star.
鈥淚t would have been stupid to put another one on, having had to have this one covered all the time,鈥� Kent says.
In 2000, Kent had his left arm tattooed with a Celtic tribal tattoo that he designed himself based on a 2,000-year-old broach.
鈥淚t is Celtic wolves facing each other,鈥� he says, adding the tattoo also includes a Celtic cross on the inside of his arm.
He says if his young sons eventually want to get tattoos, he will support them 鈥� 鈥渁s long as they don鈥檛 go doing their face or something,鈥� he says.
When Kent got his first tattoo as a teen and went home, his mother took it in stride.
鈥淪he just turned around and looked at it and said, 鈥極h, that is nice dear,鈥欌�� he laughs.
Although it is a common theme, not all tattooed Squamites go for a nature tattoo.
Andy Younger, 28, has several Norse mythology tattoos. 鈥淚 have Norwegian roots on my blood-mother鈥檚 side, and I have always loved Viking culture,鈥� he says.
His arms, back and chest are tattooed. His right arm, for example, is a half-sleeve that includes the symbol of the hammer of Thor, the mask of Odin and rune stones. The Norse tree of life rises up his spine on his back.
Younger says he has never had trouble on his job as a greenskeeper at 麻豆社国产Valley Golf and Country Club because of his tattoos.
鈥淚 have never had anybody gawk at me or anything,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 have never had an issue wherever I have gone. Today, I think society has accepted tattoos as the norm. It is kind of weird when someone doesn鈥檛 have any, to me.鈥�
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Mayor Patricia Heintzman shows off her sea turtle tattoo. 鈥� David Buzzard
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