SILVER LININGS
Tattoos aren’t just for kids anymore. These brave senior ladies are putting the ‘ink’ in ‘wrinkle’
L IKE any person who just got their first tattoo, Paula Booth-Ellis is proud to show off her ink.
But unlike most tattoo newbies, BoothEllis isn’t a rebellious teen or a trendy 20-something, but an 80-year-old grandma.
The retired guidance counselor, who lives in New Jersey and got her ink in February, knows she’s a little unusual. “What woman at 79 years old gets tattooed?” she tells The Post, laughing.
While it’s true that she’s in the minority — most tattooed Americans got their maiden ink before the age of 30, according to a 2017 Statista survey — lately, more New Yorkers who qualify for early-bird specials are going under the needle.
Red Rocket Tattoo co-owner Mike Bellamy, 52, has noticed an uptick in clients at older-than-usual tattooing ages — particularly women over 45. Many “grew up with the stigma of tattooing . . . It was for the bikers and criminals,” he tells The Post. But as they enter middle age and beyond, they decide “they need a change in life,” he says. So they “freshen up, and get a tattoo like the kids.”
Booth-Ellis did one better: She got a tattoo from her kid. Her ink was a spur-of-the-moment Valentine’s Day present from her son, Paul Booth, 51, the owner of Manhattan tattoo studio Last Rites.
“I just put her on the spot one day — I didn’t give her much of a choice,” says Booth.
“After a little bit of thinking, I said, ‘OK,’ ” says Booth-Ellis. And why not? “I don’t really care about other people’s
Garden State grandma Paula Booth-Ellis, 80, got inked at Manhattan tattoo parlor Last Rites earlier this year (inset).
perceptions — I do what I want to do,” she continues.
So Booth decked out his then-79-year-old mother’s left leg with the logo of his shop: a black-shaded skull. Later, in July, he added a rose; the two-part tattoo now runs down nearly all of her lower leg.
Similarly, Ronnie Small, a 74-year-old grandmother, got her first tattoo at age 65 on a whim. The topic first came up while the New Jersey resident was chatting with her son, Greg, who’s now 48.
“He said, ‘What would you like as a birthday gift?’ It just automatically came out: ‘A tattoo.’ That must have shocked the hell out of him,” Small tells The Post. In Greg’s younger days, he asked his mother if he could get tattooed when he grew older. “I was always against it and was very verbal about it,” she says. “I always thought tattoos were beautiful . . . I just didn’t want my children to have them.”
But as Greg started getting inked in his 20s, with well-designed tattoos that include a shark and diver down his back, Small — perhaps a bit jealous — had a change of heart.
So Greg and his now-wife took Small to Screamin’ Ink Tattoo in Fair Lawn, NJ, where she got a self-designed, whimsical garden scene around her left ankle. Small says the drawing, which features butterflies, a ladybug, a hummingbird and flowers, is inspired by her love of flowers and children.
For other seniors, tattoo inspiration struck more gradually.
“There’s no way I ever thought of myself getting a tattoo,” says Patricia Galloway, 70, who lives in Cary, NC. But after her husband, Edward, passed away from a cardiac event in August 2016, she wanted to do something to honor his memory. So, last October, she went to Brooklyn’s Nice Tattoo Parlor, where her son-in-law, Eric Berg, is an investor. Her chosen tribute: a 5-inch, blue-and-black sig- nature that reads “Eduardo!”— her nickname for her husband, and how he’d sign cards and notes to her. It’s placed on her right shoulder blade to symbolize how “he always had my back,” she says.
Like Galloway, 69-year-old Long Island resident Karen Clarke got her first tattoo as a tribute to a lost loved one. The image, which depicts a brown-shaded sand dollar and the date 3-22-14, memorializes a family friend — a 34-year-old woman named Michelle who loved sand dollars — who died of a stroke that day.
“People have looked at it and want to know what it means,” says Clarke, a retired shipping-and-receiving manager. She got the 2-inch piece done at the age of 65, at Progressive Tattoo in Lindenhurst, LI.
It’s worth noting that the procedure comes with extra risks for seniors. Paul Booth says that tattooing older skin requires a softer touch. “It’s more delicate,” he says, and gets cut more easily. Those with diabetes can also run the risk of infection, while people on blood thinners should note that their meds could interfere with wound-clotting, slowing down the tattoo’s healing time.
Although their time in the chair wasn’t painless — Booth-Ellis admits the process did hurt a bit — these four women healed just fine. Today, they’re thrilled with the results — even though they know their tats might raise some eyebrows.
“You reach a certain age where you feel as though you don’t owe society any explanations anymore,” says Small.
Clarke agrees: “When you get to be 65, you don’t really care what other people think.” Happily, the people who matter in her life love it. “My kids asked, ‘What took you so long?’ ”
So, do these gals have full sleeves in their future?
“For now I don’t have any urges,” says Galloway. “But I pretty much say, ‘Never say never!’ ”