When national televiison viewers were treated to a detailed tattoo of Donald Trump”™s face on the thigh of a fan of “The Donald,” interest in the art of tattooing soared both among the candidate”™s fans and adversaries.
Such detailed tattoos come as no surprise to clients of Graceland Tattoo in Wappingers Falls, owned by Adam Lauricella. With four other tattoo artists and two body piercers, Lauricella is used to accommodating clients”™ unusual requests.
“From a portrait, I did a tattoo of Theodore Roosevelt on the thigh of a man who is an ardent Teddy fan,” he recounts.
One of the more touching tattoos that Lauricella recalls was done on a widower in his mid-eighties. “His wife had just passed,” Lauricella begins. “He came in with one of her cancelled checks bearing her signature and asked to have the signature reproduced on his arm.”
Religious figures and symbols comprise some 15 percent of tattoos done. These include Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary, crosses, Hindu symbols and an occasional Star of David. Saints are popular, with St. Michael favored by firefighters and others. Also popular are St. Francis and Padre Pio.
Sixty percent of the Graceland clientele is composed of women, Lauricella reports.
The Graceland owner sometimes faces the inevitable scenario in which a client wants a tattoo removed. “We can send the client for laser removal, or we can alter the tattoo,” he explains. “A man who had broken up with his wife wanted to remove her name. He settled on disguising it with a traditional Indian princess headdress. Floral designs and wings work well in these instances.”
Lauricella points to changes in the industry. “In older days, clients would view a selection of displayed artwork and select one,” he explains. “Today”™s clients often want to incorporate aspects of their lives into a single tattoo ”” perhaps a relationship with a father, a love of hot rod cars and service as a paramedic. Whatever, we meet the challenge.”
The tattoos are done with a machine that goes up and down like a sewing machine rather than sliding along the skin. The sterilized needles, never used before, are shipped to Graceland in sterilized containers. The ink used for a job is poured into a small container. Leftover ink is never returned to a container for reuse; it is discarded. Lauricella prides himself on a completely sterilized facility, including stainless steel surfaces for more effective cleaning and inspection of key machines weekly by an independent laboratory.
One of the happy annual events in Lauricella’s life is the benefit that Graceland puts on to aid the March of Dimes. “Over a 4-year period we raised $20,000,” he reports.
In addition to welcoming notable tattoo artists to his Graceland premises, Lauricella travels widely with his art. At an Electric City tattoo convention in Scranton, Pa., last March, he recalled how his great-grandfather from Wales had come to Scranton to work in the coal mines.
Lauricella”™s parents, Patricia and Fred Lauricella, reside today in Poughkeepsie. The tattoo artist was raised in Wappinger and graduated from John Jay High School. He went on to study liberal arts at Dutchess Community College and theater arts at SUNY New Paltz.
As he sought a more stable life than the theater afforded, Lauricella gravitated to the art of tattooing through friends in the field.
“I didn”™t find it; it found me,” he declares of the craft. He opened Graceland in 2003.
While at SUNY New Paltz he met his wife, Keely. The couple live in Wappinger with their two children.
