SOPHIE LOU

SOPHIE LOU: I've known since I started getting tattoos that I was gonna get more. And I mean, at least for now, everything can be covered by a shirt, for the most part. I don't really plan on getting neck tattoos or anything.

DVW: On that note of visibility. When I started doing this project on Gen Z, I knew I wanted to do a section on tattoos. They’re something that is not unique to this generation, but I think very much more, like, accepted and visible with us, I would say. So I started doing some research, and [discovered] tattooing was banned in New York City from 1961 through 1997, which is just crazy to me.

SOPHIE LOU: Yeah.

DVW: 1997 is the year that tattooing became legal, but it's also the first [birth] year of [those considered] Gen Z, which I think is really interesting. Like I was saying, I think this generation is associated with the rise of tattoos as an acceptable form of self expression. There's obviously the rise of tattoos in pop culture in the ‘70s and ‘80s. But I feel like if you had a tattoo then, it was a symbol of defiance or rebellion, you were a bad boy, you know?

SOPHIE LOU: Right, right.

DVW: I feel like now, everyone has tattoos. You don’t have to be a rock star. How were you raised to view tattoos, and do you view your tattoos as an act of defiance? Or more works of art? Or just something else completely?

SOPHIE LOU: It's a good question. With my parents, the subject of tattoos was never really a thing. I can't ever remember them saying anything like, “If you get a tattoo, you’ve got to wait until you're out of my house.” I'm very lucky to have pretty lax parents.

DVW: Do your parents have tattoos?

SOPHIE LOU: They don't have tattoos, no. It's funny though, because my dad has been making jokes about getting a tattoo, because now I have one. He jests, “Maybe I'll get a tattoo!” and I'm like, “you should!”

[MUTUAL LAUGHTER]

SOPHIE LOU: I got my first professional tattoo when I was 17, so I had to get my mom to sign off on it. It was a tattoo with my two older sisters. I think that's kind of part of the reason [my mom] was keen on, maybe not keen, perhaps that's too strong of a word. But she [was] OK signing off on it because it was symbolic.

DVW: I know multiple people that have matching tattoos with their sister, that got that as their first tattoo. I think there’s something to be said about your first tattoo being something you know will always be important to you forever.

SOPHIE LOU: It was definitely symbolic. But I, well, I have to say that the stick and pokes that my friends and I gave each other [in highschool] probably came more from a feeling of defiance, you know, given our age. We were just hanging around at our friend's houses, smoking weed and ordering India ink and tattoo needles from Amazon. That was definitely more of a teenage rebellion thing. But still, I think we more or less all had some kind of link to what it was that we were getting tattooed, there was still a meaning to it. It wasn't just some random image.

SOPHIE LOU: Another conversation about Gen Z and tattoos is that people now are teaching themselves how to tattoo, and becoming independent tattoo artists, versus having to go through a years-long apprenticeship. It lends itself to another conversation in this realm of reclaiming the means of production, or making a career of something that maybe older generations wouldn't think that you could.

DVW: Yeah, you can’t major in tattooing.

SOPHIE LOU: Right. And I think that’s really cool.

SOPHIE LOU: Anyways, for me [receiving a tattoo] is usually not so much an act of defiance. I like looking in the mirror and feeling more beautiful because of the art that I have. And also being able to kind of reflect on who I was in that moment that I got that tattoo. I'm there for the experience. That's so much of it for me, I think, the experience. And then carrying that art, and looking at it.

SOPHIE LOU: [On visibility] I've gotten this comment from people that I don't know that well, or people that are just getting to know me, or maybe people less clued-in to tattoo culture… that they see my tattoos before they see me sometimes. They have a preconceived notion of who I'm gonna be. And I can be a tough cookie, but I'm also a very sensitive person, I’m very kind, I'm a sweetie pie. For example, someone I went on two dates with last season told me, “I had this notion of who I thought you might be because of your hyper-visible tattoos that I saw on your profile. And then I met you in real life, and it was just totally the opposite.”

DVW: A tattoo affecting one's perception of an image… I know that you've done some modeling in the past. Were your tattoos ever something that people told you would affect your getting casted? Or do you think it actually made you more desirable?

SOPHIE LOU: I actually just terminated my contract before New York Fashion Week. So I guess it would have been interesting had I still been signed to see how I would have been received. But when I did sign, I did tell my agents, and I had a few tattoos at that point, I think I already had my chest tattoo actually, the fairies, at least. I told them, “I'm going to get more!” and they said, “Okay, yeah, just show us when you get them.”

SOPHIE LOU: Still, I knew that my tattoos probably made me undesirable to certain clients… [however] With Keegan Dakar, he grew up in New York. His parents are New York punks, and his artwork is pretty well known in the city. He actually was commissioned to work on the latest Marc Jacobs' Heaven line. So I think it also depends on who's tattooing you and if they kind of already have a following or people who appreciate them. And I think that really only happens in New York with me. When I'm walking around New York, especially if I'm walking around the Lower East Side or something, I feel like there's more heads who would know Keegan. So like, maybe Marc Jacobs would’ve liked to cast me because of my chest piece, [because they work with Keegan].

SOPHIE LOU: But I do feel like we’re turning the page now, you see [the industry] casting more alternative looking people with tattoos in general. I think in New York, especially in certain places like Bushwick, the Lower East Side for sure… there’s definitely a kind of model that's becoming very popular.

DVW: Yeah, the tatted Bushwick-baddie is definitely having an insurgence right now. Especially in i-D, I’ve noticed, or other alt-following media sources. I just think, I think it's really awesome that 25 years ago, you know, tattoos weren't even legal, getting tattooed wasn't even legal. But now, tattoos are such a staple of being a New Yorker… which ties a bit into graffiti culture as well.

SOPHIE: No, that's totally true, you’re right. It’s funny.

DVW: Well, we’re at my last topic of the interview, these pictures we took. I think I had put something on my [Instagram] story where I was like, “People with tattoos! I want to talk to you!”

SOPHIE LOU: Yeah.

DVW: And you said, “Oh, I actually just got this piece on my chest and it still has the second skin on, you know… that could be cool to photograph.” Me being an artist and you being an artist, we both knew that that could be a really interesting visual. On top of that, you had just injured your arm.

SOPHIE LOU: Yeah, I broke my arm. I had an open fracture. I have two long lines, these little train tracks I like to call them. When we shot it was about a year later, because I finished the piece in April, I think. And then May 4th, 2023 would have been the one year. So I think we shot just before the one year anniversary of breaking my arm.

DVW: That timing is so symbolic. I don't know, sometimes coming from art school, I feel like I see the symbolism in everything.

SOPHIE LOU: Totally. No, I'm right there with you… pattern seeking brain.