This is a reprint of an article Nordjyske first published on January 22, 2022.
Sarah Anthony Martin’s body is covered in tattoos. She has had her tongue split, stretched her nostrils and lower lip and placed silicone implants under the skin.
– I guess we all look when we see something we’re not used to seeing, says Sarah Anthony Martin regarding the looks she’s gotten over time.
– It’s good to be curious. If people weren’t looking and curious, I’d wonder too. It would almost scare me if people didn’t have a need to look and expand their horizons by seeing something different. It is important that we are all pushed in relation to our world view every now and then.
At the age of 13, Sarah had her first body decorations in the form of piercings. Back then, it was part of a rebellious behavior, like when she sneaked out at night despite her mother’s prohibition, and when she joined the Socialist Youth Front.
Through her body decoration, Sarah wants to show that she has the right to her own body. Photo: Lars Pauli
Photo: Lars Pauli
Today it is no longer assumed – it is an ingrained part of her person.
– I’m just damn good at being myself.
– As a woman, I believe that you have an obligation to show and say that you have the right to your own body and can do with it what you want. What began as a decorative obsession and a form of expression for me has developed into a need that is at the same time quite relevant and important in terms of society.
It started with great grandfather’s arms
Already from childhood, Sarah was strongly fascinated by body decoration.
The rest of Sarah’s family was nowhere near as tattooed as she is today. But that’s where her fascination with body adornment took its infancy. Photo by Lars Pauli
Photo: Lars Pauli
She remembers a time when she sat on her great-grandfather’s lap and watched Anne and Lotte. But it wasn’t the TV that attracted her attention. On the other hand, the great-grandfather’s arms did, which were tattooed with ships, knives and classic, green splatter tattoos from his time as a sailor.
In the childhood home there was also inspiration from Sarah’s father. Both of his arms were tattooed, and in her eyes he was the most handsome man in the whole world.
It was also her father who introduced her to the historical and cultural background of body decoration when they looked together in books regarding the Native Americans.
– My father was a trained school teacher and perhaps a bit environmentally damaged by that. Therefore, it was always the case that if we did something together, I had to learn something from it too. I did too, but it was definitely the pictures with the natives’ paint and decorations that stole my attention.
Body decoration for thousands of years
According to Sarah, body adornment is actually part of the collective consciousness of all of us. History shows that.
It has created an ambivalent feeling along the way when people looked for Sarah, but today she has come to terms with the situation. Photo: Lars Pauli
Photo: Lars Pauli
Among other things, she talks regarding the discovery of a frozen person in Austria who was well preserved despite having existed for 6000 years. His body was covered in tattoos and is one of many proofs that man has always had an urge to adorn himself, whether for practical or personal reasons.
Therefore, it may well surprise the North Jutland when people are critical of her decision to decorate her body, as she has done. Especially when there are very few people who can see themselves completely free to make use of any form of body decoration.
– Everyone cuts their hair and puts it in a certain way in the morning. Some train in fitness and develop huge bodies. It is also a body decoration and a form of expression. And for some reason, we’ve come to a common understanding that it’s okay if you get bigger lips, bigger breasts or straighten your cheekbones, but if you’re licked all over your face – especially as a woman – then that’s another matter.
– It’s not because what I do is something new or groundbreaking. I just have a bit more makeup than average, and I’m a woman who does something that doesn’t fit into the conventional world view of what a beautiful woman looks like. You can be a beautiful and pretty girl in many ways, and we are all beautiful in our own way. This is just my expression and what I think is nice.
Aalborg has grown bigger
Six years ago, the many looks actually became too much for Sarah. Therefore, she decided to pack her suitcase and head for the United States, where she expected to meet a different kind of understanding and openness to her appearance.
But the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
Because even though her then boyfriend at the time had far more tattoos and piercings than her, it was always Sarah who was the target of glances and critical voices.
– Because I was a woman and a mother, different rules applied to me. I am a super good mom, but I might feel and hear how others questioned my ability to be a mom based solely on how I looked.
Although she actually felt that Aalborg had become too small for her, she returned to North Jutland to have her daily life, where it all started.
Over the years, North Jutland has gradually gotten used to the looks, but development also comes from outside. Because while the tattoos, piercings and body modifications have spread over her body, the people of Aalborg have also expanded their spaciousness.
– Aalborg has grown bigger. Today, the city contains all types of people from all over the world, and mentally Aalborg has simply become a bigger city during the last 10-15 years. That way, I’m not as weird to look at as I once was.
Live the dream in North Jutland
There are many reasons why Sarah walks down Vesterbro every day to go to work with a smile on her face. In fact, she can’t name a single negative regarding her job, even though she herself knows that it’s a really dumb answer. On the other hand, she can list the pluses all at once.
One of the pluses is that she has been allowed to work with her great passion and hobby. It has brought her far and wide around the world, and now it has also started to draw others to North Jutland.
– People come from all over the country, just because I am me and can do it the way I can. I have been working on that recognition around the clock, and I have finally arrived. There is nothing cooler than the creative freedom that many of my clients give me. When starting out as a piercer, the type of creative freedom is something you only dream of getting from your clients, but never expect to be possible.
Fortunately for Sarah, it is the case that it is not only the customers who get something out of her services. It is especially the customer contact that makes everyday life and the same work routines fun and unpredictable.
– Every time I think that I have seen and experienced everything, a new person appears who gets under my skin or thinks in a way that I have never experienced before. It’s something that lights the spark for me.
Correction January 24 at 11:13: North Jutland draws attention to the fact that it is illegal in Denmark to tattoo on the neck, hands and head according to the Tattoo Act.
Sarah works as a tattoo artist and piercer in Artistic Tattooing at Vesterbro in Aalborg. Photo: Lars Pauli
Photo: Lars Pauli
2022-01-22 16:49:36
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