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N'awlins Ink Friday, August 08 2008

In this episode of M.I. the crew heads to New Orleans where they find the city still recovering from hurricane Katrina. The guys attend a burlesque show and auction off a painting to help a local man.

The crew is in New Orleans to sample some of the Cajun fare, see a few shows, and do some tattoos. After getting set up in their accommodations, an old converted fire house, the crew sets up to do some tattoos at their friend’s parlor: eye candy.

First, Irvin is a famous New Orleans trumpeter and he wants a tribal tattoo that incorporates elements of his quarter million dollar Dave Monette trumpet. “All of the great trumpet players play Dave Monette’s trumpets,” Irvin explains, “It took 20 people 15 months to build this trumpet by hand.” The instrument features a New Orleans fleur-de-lis, a ruby encrusted mouthpiece, and African diamonds. After a short concert for the crew, Irvin leaves Tim Hendricks to get the design ready.

Next, a sword bearing woman named Gina comes into the shop looking to get a tattoo to symbolize her commitment to her religion: voodoo. “You been stopped on the street walking around with this thing?” Chris Nuñez asks, “You look like a disgruntled housewife.” “That’s why people leave me alone.” Gina says with a laugh. Chris asks the priestess to come back later while he creates a design on the sword she brought.

Since hurricane Katrina, tourism in New Orleans has been at an all-time low, so the guys reach out to inject some currency in the local market by going to burlesque show. The old school feel suits their tastes perfectly, and Ami James even gets a bit hot under the collar when a Jewish girl comes on stage.

When the voodoo priestess comes back for her tattoo, Chris Nuñez gets a lesson in voodoo. “I’ve been into voodoo for about five years…a friend of mine took me to a ceremony, and I saw somebody possessed and they were saying things that no one should have known. It’s like there really has to be something to this,” Gina tells him. The sword is a symbol of her offering to her Loa, or her guiding spirit, an analogue to a catholic saint. As a Mambo, or a female priestess, she hopes the tattoo will serve as a reminder to her to serve her community and her temple. When the tattoo is finished she gives Chris a big hug and a smile before taking her sword and heading home

When Leo, the guitarist for the famous New Orleans funk band The Meters comes in, Chris Garver is happy to oblige. Leo wants an eagle tattoo to cover an old self-done tattoo on his forearm. “When I was 11 years old, I got this tattoo,” Leo says, “It was done with a matchstick, you put the needle in the matchstick, and then take the ink and just jut it in you” Leo wants a pair of eagle wings with the lettering “free” across the top to symbolize his freedom as a person, and his freedom from the memories he’s erasing with the tattoo.

Meanwhile, the crew take a trip down to the 9th ward to see how the clean-up and reconstruction is coming along. Cruising by FEMA trailer parks, the destroyed houses, the empty lots where houses used to be, and the new concrete levies really hits home with the guys. In a destroyed house the guys find pictures of its former inhabitants and a few old belongings and the experience becomes a bit too much for Yoji, “I’m a family man…this broken down house with kid’s toys everywhere…its painful to watch…I can’t stay here.” After speaking with a local they met named Clay, the crew resolves to help. “You know being here, it makes you want to do something, it makes you want to do something to help, but I don’t see what it is, I wouldn’t even know how to start.” Ami says.

When Irvin the trumpeter comes back, Tim plans on laying down a fleur-de-lis and creating the tribal design around it. “This trumpet was made for the victims of hurricane Katrina, one of who was my dad. It’s a thing that brings people together in a positive way, because the hurricane was real negative thing, but this trumpet creates such beautiful music out of something that was so tragic.” Irvin says, “Music is to New Orleans what blood is to the body.” When Tim is done, Irvin is amazed and pleased and wants Tim to come to one of his shows.

Even though Yoji thinks the firehouse where the crew is staying is haunted, the tattoos keep on coming. Leo the guitar player comes back to get his eagle wings. “I chose the tattoo,” he says, “because eagles go where they want to go, fly where they want to fly, they fly how they want to fly, they fly with who they want to fly with, and I’m a free spirit.” Leo leaves the shop with both a symbol of his spiritual freedom and without the memories associated with his old tattoo.

Next, a very colorful guy named Tim comes into the shop looking to get a tattoo of his equally colorful V.W. van. The van itself has been cut up from its original 1970’s length, and its mardi gras colors are something Scooby-Doo would be proud of. “It’s missing about 4 feet in there,” Tim says. Coming to New Orleans one year for Mardi Gras, Tim decided it would be cheaper just to stay until the next year’s festival. “Mardi Gras is only once a year,” James tells him. “Yeah,” Tim replies, “but you got to get ready for it year round, if you do it right.” Tim already has some Mardi Gras beads tattooed around his neck, and he tells Ami that he met his wife at Mardi Gras. In fact, Tim’s whole family is in love with Mardi Gras, his brother, wife, even his grandmother can’t get enough of the legendary fesitval. Tim’s purple, green, and yellow shorty van looks sweet on his thigh, and he invites Ami back out to New Orleans for the next year’s debaucherous bourbon street fest.

Alex is another patron that wants a black Jesus tattoo on his back to symbolize his continuing faith after the horrific storm. “Out of about 100 Jesus’ I do, probably about 2 are black, so I’m looking forward to this one,” Garver says. “This black Jesus tattoo is my first and last tattoo,” Alex says, “It’ll help me remember the things that I went through with Katrina, plus it’ll help me to heal in a way.” In the aftermath of the storm, Alex was forced to steal things to survive, and hearing him talk about seeing kids lose parents, parents losing kids, and people lose everything makes the terrible reality more concrete. Alex leaves the shop with a stunning new symbol of his unwavering faith.

To do what they can to help out the victims of the storm, the guys decide to do a painting to be auctioned off. But with Tim missing in action the guys’ collaboration isn’t going too well, and eventually they just leave a hopeful note on the mish-mash composition asking him to finish the piece. After Tim gets back from Irvin the trumpeter’s concert, where he got the chance to get up on stage and sing a couple verses, he finds the note and completely re-does the painting by himself. And with all the creative juices flowing the same direction, the painting turns out much better than the earlier collaborative effort of the group.

Right before the guys leave, they go out and find the local they had met earlier, Clay, to give him the painting. “Clay lost everything in hurricane Katrina,” Ami says, “we’re hoping that the money we get from this painting can make a difference.” “Ooh that is nice,” Clay says when he sees the painting. “We’ll auction it off, and we’ll give you the money,” Ami tells him. “You’re kidding me,” Clay says in disbelief, “well there’s not much more I can say than thank you.” The crew leave the city wishing they could do more, but feel pretty good knowing that they made a difference in at least one person’s life. They head for the sunny Miami beaches, leaving behind the crawfish, jazz, and their clients’ stories, told through their art, imprinted forever in the flesh.