The Good Life - January/February 2014

designs, are all strategically placed on his body so that
they would be covered by a t-shirt.
He said people are becoming more accepting of
tattoos, but the level of acceptance depends on where a
person lives. In North Dakota, which is a typically very
conservative area of the United States, acceptance isn’t as
great as in other parts of the country.
Local real estate agent Ben Schroeder looks like the
typical clean-cut, clean-shaven, “catalog” guy.
He wears dress clothing often due to his profession,
so when clients and others find out he has tattoos, he said
99 percent of the time they give him a shocked look and
say “I never thought someone like you would
have tattoos.”
He got his first tattoo when he was 18,
and now he has been adding to a large tribal
tattoo. When working in the corporate
world, he made it a point to not bring
up his body art. But now if the topic of
tattoos comes up, he talks about it without
hesitation.
A common sentiment from these men
was that the more awareness that is
brought to people who have body
art, the more acceptance there
would be to move past the
stereotypes.
“I always tell people that if you give
them the opportunity to show you their
character and the kind of person they
are, they will surprise you.”
— Jeremy Hartje
DAVE KERZMAN
- WEB PROGRAMMER