4 Charlotte-themed tattoos from a crown to the skyline

• Last month, we asked you to share your tattoos and stories.
• From skylines to a CLT inking, y’all showed your love for Charlotte in unique ways.

Watercolor skyline

Rachel Pepper is a native Charlottean. Charlotte’s many transplants always look amazed she tells them natives have a, “secret society that meets on the third Tuesday of every fifth month,” she told Axios.

• Her parents are also native Charlotteans.
• “Mom moved here when she was 6 months old, so we’ll count her I suppose,” she said.

Her ode in ink to the Queen City is a tattoo of a watercolor skyline on her arm.

• “I kept seeing these beautiful watercolor skyline paintings of different cities,” she said. “I love Charlotte’s  (ever growing) skyline, and I’m proud to be a local so why not make it a permanent part of my body?”
• “I get a ton of compliments on it, and most people can tell its Charlotte,” she added. “My running cringy joke is “yeah, it’s Charlotte! I’m going to have to start adding more buildings at this rate!” *insert long eye roll here*.”

True friendship

When Krista Graham’s best friend moved away to be with her future husband, who they met at a music festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama, they got what she called, “CLT inking.”

No real backstory

Kevin Rufty loves Charlotte and has for while. He dedicated part of his art to the city’s skyline in a heartbeat in 2012 at Fu’s Custom Tattoo in NoDa.

The tattoo evangelist

Dave Carwile’s whole family has tattoos.

• He’s been in Charlotte for more than six years, and he immediately fell in love with the city.
• “I got a crown on my forearm as a life-time conversation piece to share my love for the time I’ve spent in the QC,” he told Axios.

As president at iHeartMedia Multi-Platform Group – Charlotte he uses his ink to change the taboo of tattoos in the business world.

• “I love the shock on people’s face when I have a suit on and they see a peek of ink under my sleeve or chest,” Carwile said. “The response is always, ‘you don’t look like you have tattoo’s’ – not sure what that means, but proud to be a tattoo evangelist! Change the world.”

Bonus: Creating Exposure Through the Arts’ series Inked has been tackling stereotypes about tattoos and the people with them for more than a decade.

• What started as a photojournalism workshop for students at the YMCA turned into a documentary called “Behind the Ink” and a coffee table book.
• “Behind the Ink” was featured at Charlotte SHOUT!.

Flashback: Joseph Johnson was a Creating Exposure student. He has a tattoo honoring his late mother, but students mocking the rose tattoo didn’t know that. It led to a conversation CEA founder Mark Pendergrass called a “teachable moment” about assumptions people make about tattoos.

• Ultimately, Inked became part of the program’s curriculum, allowing students to photograph people from all walks of life ー from professional athletes to everyday Charlotteans.