Are facial tattoos still taboo? | Tattoos

Vladimir Franz has a face you remember. As well as being an opera composer, a painter and a professor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, he is currently in third place in the presidential race in his native Czech Republic. He is also covered from head to toe in tattoos.

ShortcutsTattoos This article is more than 11 years old

Are facial tattoos still taboo?

This article is more than 11 years oldA tattooed face hasn't held back the Czech presidential hopeful Vladimir Franz. Are facial tattoos finally acceptable – and what drives people to ink their faces?

Vladimir Franz has a face you remember. As well as being an opera composer, a painter and a professor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, he is currently in third place in the presidential race in his native Czech Republic. He is also covered from head to toe in tattoos.

Liu Ming, a tattoo enthusiast from China. Photograph: Claro Cortes IV/Reuters

Anecdotal evidence suggests that tattoos are ever more acceptable in society, but facial tattoos are still quite uncommon. Alex Binnie is a tattooist who works out of the Into You studios in Brighton and London. "It's pretty unusual even now," he says. "I've been in the tattoo trade for more than 25 years; I know people who've got even more heavily tattooed faces than [Franz's], but you tend to see them at tattoo conventions.

Tom Leppard, 'the Leopard Man of Skye'. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

"Tattooing is more acceptable all over so people don't freak out quite so much at every tattooed face," Binnie continues. "If you know someone well, you no longer become distracted by it and the people in the Czech Republic are obviously used to this guy."

A visitor to a tattoo convention in London. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

I asked Dr William Clayton, a dermatologist at the Skin Laser Clinic at the Royal Free Hospital in London, if he saw many clients wishing to remove facial tattoos. "Not many," he says. "I might see one or two a year." But there's an exception: "Inside lips – we see a few of those. People sometimes get rude words tattooed inside their lips so they can show them off down the pub."

A client at the Berlin tattoo convention in Berlin. Photograph: Carsten Koall/Getty Images

A cursory look on the web brings up vague notices of superficial links between face tattoos and higher suicide rates. "I haven't got any academic papers I can quote you," says Dr Clayton. "But certainly the people I've seen have had colourful lives, put it that way. It's quite a statement to make, to have your face tattooed. And sometimes it's quite an angry thing, with themselves or with society. It's certainly very significant."

Another visitor to the London tattoo convention. Photograph: Alessia Pierdomenico/Reuters

Binnie says: "Getting heavily tattooed, especially in the face, can be a way of attempting to resolve inner conflict and of course, like other things, it may not always work." He pauses. "It's obviously worked for Franz, because he's a successful guy running for president."

Oldies, whose head features tattoos by the artist Josh Lin. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

At least Franz's tattoos are well thought out – consider the case of Eric Hartsburg in Indiana, the not-so-proud owner of a face tattoo of the unsuccessful Romney/Ryan bid for the White House. He is getting it removed.

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