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Article Published: Thursday, January 12, 2006



Soldier draws a crowd with tattoo parlor at Marez base

By MARGARET FRIEDENAUER, Staff Writer

MOSUL, Iraq--At the bottom of his sign for OIF Tattoos, Staff Sgt. Justen Folda wrote the words: "Welcome to your new addiction."
The sign is not a welcome but a warning, a caution that once you feel the sting of the needle during your first tattoo, you'll want more.

Folda has done more than 180 tattoos since arriving in Iraq with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team five months ago. Most of his customers are repeats--soldiers looking for a souvenir of time spent in the confounding and dangerous combat zone.

Or in many soldiers' cases, several souvenirs.

Feeding their addiction fills up any free time he has when not on duty as a forward observer with the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry. By day he directs artillery, by night he is the resident tattoo artist at Forward Operating Base Marez.

"If I'm not on a mission, I'm tattooing," he said last week while preparing for a customer.




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Folda is not licensed to give tattoos in the United States, but he has studied the art since he was in his teens. He joined the Army 10 years ago.

His mother is a watercolor artist. Growing up in California and Montana, Folda liked to draw and sketch. That artistic passion slowly moved to skin art. He carved a small sun-like tattoo near his own ankle when he was younger and then a friend gave him another one when he was 16 using a remote-control car motor and a sewing needle.

"Everyone starts out like that," he said. "I did it ghetto style. Then you realize that wasn't the way to do it."

Folda's residence at Marez serves as his tattoo parlor. Most of what he's learned comes from his copy of Huck Spaulding's, "Tattooing from A-Z," a well-worn gospel for everything from properly stretching skin to sterilizing equipment. Among hundreds of facts, the book offers the reason for why the skin must be shaved before applying a tattoo.

"There's 488 things or bacteria that live on just one human hair," he said flipping through the book.

After studying up on the subject in his late teens, he began practicing his art.

"I just found a few willing souls," he said shyly.

Including himself. He's working in stages on his own left forearm.

"It's said that the only dumb tattoo artist is the one that tattoos themselves," Folda said. "But Huck says you shouldn't tattoo anyone until you done yourself."

His Marez studio took off with the help of a tattoo artist who was stationed here with the previous unit. Folda asked the soldier how he conducted business, then secured approval all the way up the chain of command to the battalion commander.

He said he also won the command over with his professionalism. Folda is strict with his workspace. He cordoned off the tattooing area from his bed and television and turned two wall lockers on their sides to provide a smooth work surface that's easier to disinfect. He has a steam sterilizer and hospital-strength soap and disinfectant.

He orders all his gloves, needles and inks through the Internet from a tattoo supply company that ships to his Army post office box. The battalion medics and doctors stop by about once a week to check his work area and make sure he is using proper sterilization techniques.

"I try to run everything here exactly like it would be as a parlor in the States," he said.

The only thing missing is Folda's license. He hopes to secure an apprenticeship when he returns to Fairbanks, the first step in what can be a three-year process to obtain a license. He said he thinks he can prove himself with the fact that he kept a sterile studio and his portfolio will consist of actual tattoos etched on satisfied customers.

Folda said his wife, Nicole, is supportive of his tattoo career ambitions, even though she's not interested in getting one herself. But she did watch via Web cam when he did one of his first tattoos in Iraq.

The only major difference between Folda's parlor and one in the States, he said, is his prices. Folda said he charges about a third of normal prices in the U.S. He knocks a percentage off for military pieces and charges only equipment costs for memorial tattoos, like those he did for five buddies of Spc. Lucas Frantz, a member of Folda's Alpha Co. who died in October from a sniper's bullet.

The price is one of the more appealing aspects of his business and the reason he has a monthlong waiting list. He said he used to book several customers a night until he got burned out and felt he was rushing customers. He thought about shutting the parlor doors until he decided to only schedule one tattoo per night.

"Then I started enjoying it again," he said.

Apparently so do his customers. He said he's tattooed soldiers who said they never thought they would get a tattoo but have already scheduled second or third appointments. Spc. Sini Matamua was in Folda's parlor for his second tattoo last week.

Matamua is originally from Samoa and has several tattoos in bands around his arms done in traditional Samoan style--using shark teeth and a hammer to tap ink into the skin. He also has several tattoos done in U.S. parlors.

Folda etched a large piece of an angel rising above demons on Matamua's back. Matamua, a welder with the support battalion was excited, more than anxious, about the three hours he would spend under the needle.

"Every time you do it, it hurts," he said. "It's its own feeling, but a good feeling. It's wild."

For Matamua, the act of getting a tattoo is part tradition and part machismo. For others, Folda said, it's a morale booster, a special treat soldiers didn't think they'd be able to get while overseas.

And getting a tattoo while deployed in Iraq can take on a meaning of its own, he said. It's a way for a soldier to mark the fact they were a part of history.

"There's a lot of guys out here we're never going to see again," Folda said.

He said, surprisingly, that he hasn't done many military-themed tattoos. He has done several tattoos that incorporate the names of soldiers' wives or children, however.

Even after more than 180 tattoos in five months, Folda said he still gets nervous right before each one until the needle touches the skin.

"You never know if they're going to have one of those weird sneezes right in the middle," he said.

By the end of the night, Folda had an audience for Matamua's tattoo. Each of the five soldiers in the room had a tattoo done by Folda and at least three were on the schedule for another in the next month.

Like the tattoos many soldiers will take with them when they leave Iraq, Folda wants to keep the name of his first makeshift parlor for the professional one he hopes to open in Alaska someday, OIF Tattoos. It stand for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"It has a lot of history," he said.

Margaret Friedenauer is embedded with the 172nd Stryker Combat Team in Iraq. Contact her and read her stories and behind-the-scenes blog entries at www.newsminer.com/iraq.