Driven to ink

On a recent Friday night at Uptown’s Tattoo Factory (4441 N Broadway, 773-989-4077), everybody—and every body—had a story. Tattoo guns buzzed incessantly as a camera crew rolled tape for a late-night TV show that will air on My50 and WGN in March.

Among those going under the needle around 9:30pm was a West Side schoolteacher who paid tribute to her father with a tat of a lucky horseshoe inscribed with the word POPPY. Estranged for many years because of his alcoholism, dad and daughter reunited shortly before his death. A recovering heroin addict in his fifties marked seven years sober with a piece on his arm: a syringe hanging from a noose, as if he were literally killing the addiction. Members of the hard-rock group Veilside signed their commitment to each other with matching tattoos of the band’s logo. A gay-rights activist and bicycle enthusiast chose to get a sprocket crowned by a rainbow, symbolizing the bike ride he organizes to benefit local HIV/AIDS services.

Not all the tats were as profound: Aspiring pop singer Chessa Landry (pictured) permanently pinned a pinup girl to her bicep. “Sometimes the story is that the person just really loves to get ink,” says Kevin Worthy, the as-yet-unnamed series’ producer, who has worked on shows such as HGTV’s Design on a Dime and TV Land’s She’s Got the Look. (Worthy’s three tats: a small clover; a mighty eagle, wings spread across his back; and an altered Louie the Laker, the mascot at his alma mater, Grand Valley State University.) “For some people,” he says, “a tattoo is just another accessory.”

Response from a casting ad for the show posted on Craigslist was solid, but Worthy says there’s room for more folks willing to get ink and tell their story in front of a camera. The best part: Depending on the piece’s size and complexity, the work is free or discounted by at least 50 percent.

Why should you be on the show? Make your case in an e-mail to twotattoo@ameritech.net.

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