Sign of the times

It’s been 36 years, but Dan Hoover still remembers how captivated he was the first time he saw someone covered with tattoos.

He was 11 years old at the time. Catching sight of a guy with sleeves of tats running up and down his arms, he was immediately hooked.

“I thought, ‘Wow, I want to do that,’ ” said Hoover, a decidedly professional-looking manager of supplier quality and development at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in Lewiston and Pullman.

That wasn’t exactly a proper aspiration for a young boy growing up in Richland in the 1980s.

Although the art of tattooing dates back thousands of years, to Neolithic times, it wasn’t a form of expression embraced by mainstream America. It always had a whiff of defiance and immorality about it, of drunken weekend forays and “painted lady” carnival shows.

Still, Hoover knew what he wanted. He waited a few years, until he was 14, but then went to work, using a sewing needle and some India ink to inscribe a small cross on his palm and a second tattoo on his upper body.


“I hid them for years,” Hoover said. “I was probably 18 when my parents found out. My dad was pissed, but my mom said, ‘At least one’s a cross.’ ”

His friends weren’t much more supportive.

“One of them asked, ‘Are you in a gang?’ ” Hoover recalled. “Those were his exact words — and it wasn’t said in a cool way. There was some concern, some judgment.”

It turns out Hoover wasn’t on a path to perdition. He was just ahead of his time.

Since the 1980s, tattoos have steadily grown in popularity and public acceptance, both in America and around the world. Once discouraged or banned outright by many professions — particularly for management jobs or positions that involve a lot of interaction with the public — ink is now in.

“I’ve tattooed police officers, doctors, lawyers. People are just so accepting of it now,” said Shawn Bake, owner of Sick Precision Tattoo in Lewiston.
Within the past few years in particular, Bake said, he’s seen prohibitions against tattoos being lifted by local police agencies and the medical community. Parents who once yelled at their kids for getting tattoos are now making appointments for them — or coming in to get inked themselves.


“I tattooed an 87-year-old woman last week,” he said. “Everyone wants to join the movement.”

A 2015 survey of 2,225 U.S. adults by Harris Poll found that 29% of respondents had at least one tattoo — up from 21% just four years earlier.

The prevalence of body art varied widely by generation, though. For example, the survey indicated that only 13% of baby boomers were likely to have tattoos, compared to 47% of millennials.

This increasing acceptance of tattoos by younger generations may be driven in part by their popularity among professional athletes or famous musicians.

However, it could also reflect a desire to document their lives, either with videos or selfies, or with memorials inked into their skins.

“I think it’s absolutely documenting your journey,” Bake said. “It’s about sharing your story. Tattoos are a quiet expression that’s extremely loud.”


While acknowledging the urge to memorialize meaningful events in one’s life, Hoover said his own interest in tattoos is more akin to being an art collector.

“If I see someone with a tattoo, I’ll notice the quality of lines or the shading, how the image fits on the body,” he said. “For me, that’s what is most interesting. You’re taking a flat image and recognizing how the contours of the body accentuate that into 3D art. It speaks to me about creativity.”

Hoover got his first professionally inked tattoo when he was 35. He now has about nine different images covering most of his upper body, including dragons, snakes, a phoenix and a foo dog guardian figure.

Bake, who inscribed some of the tattoos, said Hoover’s collection was “bad ass.”

“Dan is very particular. Very, very particular,” Bake said. “And his work is some of the nicest work you’ll see walking around, the way he laid it out and wanted it designed. I love his work. If I could have his work on me I’d have it, because it’s so bad ass.”


Most of Hoover’s tattoos are done in a Japanese style. He’s not sure why that form intrigues him so much, but in his experience tattoo “collectors” — people who have lots of tattoos — gravitate toward certain styles.

“With (physical) art, people may like the classical style or abstract or whatever,” he said. “It’s the same with tattoos. Japanese style is what I collect.”

After college, Hoover lived in Texas and Boise for a number of years. For much of that time, tattoos were still a bit of a rarity. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago that he started seeing more of them in professional settings.

The needs of the workplace may dictate some of that, he said.

“If you’re (a business) hiring people out of high school, it’s getting harder and harder to find someone who doesn’t have a tattoo,” Hoover said. “So do you want to have rules about that, or just accept it? When I look at the (manufacturing) floor at SEL or at some of the suppliers I visit, tattoos are prevalent.”

Former Moscow Police Chief James Fry, who retired in May after 29 years in law enforcement, said tattoos were historically discouraged by his department, as well as other agencies.

“We had a policy that said (tattoos) couldn’t be seen below the cuff on short-sleeved shirts,” he said. “It was the same with beards. We didn’t allow facial hair.”

About a year before he retired, Fry changed the policy to allow visible tattoos, although he still had to approve them to make sure there weren’t any inappropriate images.


“The officers made the proposal to me,” Fry said. “I fought it for a long time, but decided the department had to change and grow. I talked to a lot of people before making the change. I asked if it mattered and they all said no. Since we made the change, I haven’t heard a single thing about it.”

Despite the increased acceptance, Hoover said body art can still rub up against cultural norms. When he’s around co-workers who know him, his attitude and contributions at work count for more than his tattoos. However, when he’s visiting new suppliers, particularly in another country, it’s less clear.

“I feel like to represent my company well (wisely), there are times when it’s better for me to cover up,” he said.

Indeed, a 2022 study by Christine Henle at Colorado State University found that women with visible tattoos were still likely to experience discrimination in employment and salary offers, and to be seen as less competent.

“Although tattoos have increased in popularity, they may put individuals at a disadvantage when seeking employment,” noted the study, which was published in the Journal of Business and Psychology. “Our findings suggest it’s difficult for applicants with visible tattoos to overcome discrimination.”

Hoover certainly understands that different kinds of art appeal to different individuals and that some people may not agree with his choices. But almost four decades after being captivated by an image, he has assembled the collection of his dreams.

“What I originally imagined when I was 11 — I have that,” he said. “Anything beyond that, it will have to be something that just really catches my eye.”

Spence covered government and politics for the Lewiston Tribune for 14 years before retiring at the end of 2022. He’s still trying to decide what kind of tattoo he wants to get.