under your skin

  "it's art you know? of course a lot of it is mainly aesthetics, and for some people it's perhaps straight forward like that, they seen something they liked somewhere, they maybe sew it in a catalogue or.. a friend or a celebrity or .. it's a lot about giving some kind of a signal to who you're connected to, who is part of that aesthetics, and those specific symbols and language.
Again it could be very straight forward, they like this and I like this and we both have ink [tattoo] bit. For other it's more complex, and it's a whole different story, another why to communicate, to say something about you, about how you see yourself, or your past, more like your present. What do you appreciate, what background you come from. It's a whole extra level of a bio if you ask me.
I can tell you so much about a person just from looking at his tats [tattoos]. what ink work for him, what is the historical lineage it's part of, or fashion or (looks at me) hmmmm... you said you are anthropologist right? so what culture they come from." S, owner of the tattoo and piercing Studio in South London.