Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 1996)
Feature The Clackamas Print Wednesday, November 20,1995 9 Getting a tattoo is an experience in itself Andrew S. Beck Staff Writer Why get a tattoo? That is what certain preteens, teenagers, jocks, groupies, junk ies, yuppies and Navy sailors have asked themselves at some time. Why not? For what personal reasons do people get tattoos? On driving to the “Alternative Tattoo” parlor in Beaverton two weeks ago, I contemplated that question. At the drive-thru win dow at the Burger King off the Beaverton-Hillsdale highway, I asked the attendant her feelings on the subject. “What do you think is the best part of your body to get a tattoo on?” “Oh, on your back,” she said. “Why do you say that.” “Because that, way you never see it. You know it’s just there! It’s like your own hidden secret.” Good enough logic I thought. My reason was a little more ar chaic though. I wanted to show to world how much Frank Zappa’s music has meant to me. I wanted his face forever stamped on my left shoulder! The motivation for me getting a tattoo has to be a healthy one, for personal satisfaction. It would be pretty lame if I got a tattoo just to piss off my parents. I may be impulsive, but I do not want laser surgery to be the result of my stu pidity. A week before I got the tat too, I looked into the Yellow Pages to find a business establishment to spike my skin. Several places stuck out with their interesting names, “Deluxe Tattoo”, “Sea Tramp Tattoo Co.,” etc. I called these separate tattoo parlors and asked them difficult questions. If they had a good tech nical and professional under standing of their equipment, I kept their name. But I made my deci sion based on personal preference. Also, I made sure the tattoo parlors were licensed and ap proved by the Oregon State Board of Health. A clean tattoo artist will follow the Oregon Health guide lines religiously. When getting a tattoo it’s good to set up an appointment BE FORE you get the actual product. I met with my tattoo artist, Aaron, once before to discuss the design I was getting. That way I could find out how much the tattoo cost and how long it would take. The tattoo artist needed to stencil a new tattoo pattern for my skin on his own time. The artist also gave me invaluable tips on what the tattooing process is like, how long it would take to get the tattoo, how to take care of the tat too afterwards, and how much pain would be involved. A $10 to $25 deposit is re quired by most tattoo shops. If you decide to get the tattoo, your deposit is added to the overall cost. They keep the deposit in case they make you a stencil or you do not show up for the ap pointment. The cost of a tattoo can range anywhere from $50 to $400, depending on what you want. My pure black design of Frank Zappa cost me 220 big ones.! No, it is not cheap. Getting a tattoo is an experi ence that can be rewarding and pleasant for anybody. Tattooing has been around for hundreds of years and is as popular today as ever. If you are interested in get ting a tattoo, I would encourage you to read up on the subject and find its real passion. Portland is blessed with many great tattoo parlors that you can find by look ing in the Yellow Pages. The “Al ternative Tattoo” parlor, located at 4642 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, is a good example of a model tattooing facility. Photo by Joel Coreson The author’s Frank Zappa tatoo cost him $220. He calls the experience of getting it “rewarding and pleasant. ” After living on the streets of Portland... Student recovering from drug addiction by Anna Phillips, Christina Meuller and Mairin Moore Editor’s note: the following story is based on a recent inter view. “Marie ” is a Clackamas student, but that is not her real name. Marie, a nineteen year old col lege student, has overcome an ad diction that threatened to take her life two years ago. Marie was born in Beavercreek and, at 10 years old, she moved to Gladstone with her family. Photo by Joel Coreson At 13 years old, Marie took A student learns programming in the computer-aided her first intoxicating drink. Two manufacturing course. years later, alcohol was not enough. At 15 Marie smoked her first pot; she soon became familiar with Andrew S. Beck can be as much as $12 dollars an many drugs. “It was then that I couldn’t Staff Writer hour. After a few years of experi control myself,” she explained. The Clackamas Industrial/ ence it can go to $20,” Laugle said. When Marie was 17 she Manufacturing Department is blaz The Industrial/Manufactur- moved into an apartment with her ing a trail of growth and ever-im ing Department is split into two boyfriend at 19th and Bumside in proving education. groups, the computer-aided manu downtown Portland. “Success can be seen in the facturing area and the manual “It was the kind of apartment 140 students enrolled in Industrial/ machining area. New students all complex that when you walked in Manufacturing who go directly start out in the manual machining it, would always smell .It was to into the job market and there are area. There they learn how to tally insane! People were always another 140 students in custom operate machines like lathes, mills being arrested, bums laying ized training,” said Tom Laugle, and surface grinders. After they around and syringes everywhere,” Manufacturing Department Chair. have learned the inner workings she exclaimed. Some of that time was spent Over 27 of the Northwest’s of the manufacturing floor, they top industrial manufacturing and move onto programming the ma with acquaintances who called the streets their home. High and tired, investment casting companies hire chines to run automatically. she would settle for an evening in In the computer aided manu Clackamas students. Some of a stranger’s home. these companies in Clackamas facturing the student’s role is to “I always had a warm place to County include Warn Industries, write codes on the computer to stay. Kind of risky, but I wasn’t Precision Cast Parts, Oregon Cut simulate the movement of the ma very smart,” she said. ting Systems and the Carlton Com chinery. The code is then down Marie’s boyfriend would not pany. Some Industrial/Manufac- loaded to the machine tool and the let her leave except to go to work turing students are already at work machine can be set to run by it in a retail store at Clackamas Town self, manufacturing a wide range Center. Life got crazier as the drug for these companies. use escalated. “We give our students life of parts. “I was wearing business suits With three full-time and 12 long skills so that they can work for many industrial manufactur part-time faculty members, the and heels when I worked at the Clackamaslndustrial/Manufactur- mall and, on my break, I’d go out ers,” said Laugle. to my car and do my dope,” she “All our graduates are able to ing Department fulfills its goal of said. find jobs where the starting pay providing on-the-job experience The addiction got worse to help students reach their goals. when “I lost touch with the real Manufacturing Department grows, improves program world; I lived with a guy who con trolled me with drugs. I was doing a lot of drugs then. I figured it was time to move out and get away from everything,’’she said. It was at her addiction’s peak that she moved back home. Marie contemplated suicide with an over dose of heroin. Her then ex-boy friend offered to supply her with the drugs. “I don’t know what held me back. I am glad I never met up with him that night,” she con cludes. It was awkward for Marie and her parents when she moved home. Her parents had always been conservative people and did not seem happy that she was back home. “They were pretty insane I’ve been through total hell and I can’t believe I’m still alive. _____ _______ ?? about it,” she said. “When I was trying to stop and couldn’t, I knew there was something wrong.” Admitting her addiction, Marie asked her parents to place her in a rehabilitation center. She was put in a ten-day lock-up pro gram at Providence Medical Cen ter. At 18, she was the youngest client in the facility and was locked up and sick for the first 10 days of her stay. Patients were not allowed to have sugar, caffeine or salt so, when her friends went on walks they would stand on the comer and pay passersby to buy them cigarettes, candy and chips. Overall, Marie felt the struc tural aspect of the hospital was too much. “You had to go to bed early and get up really early to do aerobics,” she said. But Marie survived and left the hospital clean of drugs. “ I changed things. I don’t do things I went there doing,.” she continued. After Marie’s rehabilation, her parents let her come back home on their terms. She has had a hard time with their rules. “My parents? Oh, they just think I’m a freak. I’ve been through total hell; I can’t believe I’m still alive.” Since Marie got off the drugs she has gained 50 pounds; she was down to 70 pounds when she went into rehab. “It’s amazing how I thought I was fat, and I really wasn’t,” she said. Fun is limited for Marie as she must separate herself from the temptation. “The boyfriend I have now doesn’t even do drugs. He drinks,” she said. For Marie, staying away from drugs is hard. “It’s like a job, and you’re working it all the time,” she ex plained. “I’ve had to walk out on friends. I lost friends when I did it, and now I lose friends because I don’t.” Marie has earned her GED and begun to move on. She is at tending Clackamas, but she does not have a plan for a career. “It takes school to get me there. I want to get on with my life and out of my parents house. Then I will be fully happy,” she said. Marie has overcome her ad diction and turned her life around. Feeling older than her 19 years, she says, “I shouldn’t have had to go through it. I put myself through it. I don’t regret a thing,” Where she is now is wiser, sober and stronger.
