Do you realize that human beings have been decorating themselves with tattoos for tens of thousands of years? Virtually every culture ever known has used these “moving pictures” to express themselves.

But in 2013, in North America, in Phoenix, Arizona, why would anyone choose to painfully add permanent art to their bodies? Some obviously think of tattoos as the ultimate personal beauty. Others feel just as passionately that they are repugnant and a desecration of “God’s Temple.”

Reactions to tattoos range from a fraternal embrace to an employment rejection. The only way to go behind these extreme views is to ask the man with the creative needle himself to answer the question, “What’s it like being a tattoo artist?”

Follow @KTAR923