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Post by joem on Oct 7, 2017 23:01:56 GMT
Not the Edinburgh variety.
Whilst enjoying this afternoon's performance of The Real Thing I was struck at the incongruity, in an otherwise straightforward realistic production set in the earli eighties, of Mr Laurence Fox's tattoos - two large ones occupying much of his forearms. I struggled to think of playwrights (his character is a playwright) in the early eighties who might have sported tattoos at the time - Genet? Shepard? - but wasn't certain if there were any. And, in any case, the otherwise fairly buttoned-up character was not in the space of the aforementioned.
This led me to wonder. Many actors describe their bodies as their tool, you see many of them working out in the gym and taking great care about their appearance. So is it not asking for trouble to make your tool time and location specific? I know the theatre has come on in leaps and bounds on race and gender and so forth but an actor with a heavily tattooed face would, I suspect, struggle to get the part of a Shakespearean king except in very specific circumstances. So why risk it?
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Post by wickedgrin on Oct 8, 2017 1:01:18 GMT
It's called tattoo blind casting!
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Tattoos
Oct 8, 2017 6:28:09 GMT
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Post by aksis on Oct 8, 2017 6:28:09 GMT
This is funny. We are on a holiday resort and in the animation team there is this good looking lady who would love to be a dancer on shows but she has a few tattoos including a huge one on her leg and one circling her belly.
My partner and I were discussing her chances to get a part somewhere and I told him they would be a problem if they could get an equally pretty girl without the paintings.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2017 13:34:35 GMT
Generally they don't bother me even when- as you rightly point out- they're out of step with the period. However one of the ensemble in Crazy for You has a very large tattoo on his arm, and I spent a good deal of the night trying to read what the writing said on it...though that could be more an indictment of my investment in the show.
A slight digression, but does anyone have any theatrical tattoos? I've long toyed with the idea, but being a generally indecisive person committing to something so permanent has never happened.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2017 13:50:40 GMT
As a complete pedant it always irked me that given the amount of makeup 'The Phantom' goes under they couldn't go to the effort of disguising a wrist tattoo for the Albert Hall filming.  |
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Post by Jan on Oct 8, 2017 15:10:31 GMT
Many actors describe their bodies as their tool ... That is less common since the great actor Nicholas Craig told us in his memoirs that he spent “many hours honing my tool”. In Michael Boyd’s rather good “Midsummer Nights Dream” Oberon had big lumps of the text tattooed on his body - a design decision rather than an aide memoire I assume. |
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Post by Kim_Bahorel on Oct 8, 2017 18:38:55 GMT
I like tattoes (nowhere brave enough to get one). I remember going to see Rent and it had Ross Hunter as Roger. At a point I was staring at his arms that had a few tattoes on them. I kept thinking about someone having to apply tattooes (as I know someone who as had to do this on a show). Well as I found out from his intsagram later on - they were all his own tattooes.
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Post by TallPaul on Oct 9, 2017 12:33:24 GMT
Watching Sheridan Smith on Strictly last night, the only thing I could concentrate on was the huge tattoo on the back of her hand. She'll never get any work with that thing!
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Post by stuartww on Oct 9, 2017 12:42:45 GMT
A slight digression, but does anyone have any theatrical tattoos? I've long toyed with the idea, but being a generally indecisive person committing to something so permanent has never happened. I have the Miss Saigon helicopter/face on my shoulder. Just the black artwork. Took me 10 years to decide i really wanted it and got it, and don't regret it. Now trying to work a full sleeve up from my wrist and forearm to meet the Miss Saigon tattoo and for it to all fit in....no mean feat! |
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Post by anita on Oct 9, 2017 12:54:19 GMT
I loathe tattoos. My youngest son has a few but my daughter is covered with them.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2017 13:52:37 GMT
The thing that amuses me is how every few years or so you'll get a bunch of news articles saying things like "tattoos used to be the preserve of sailors, bikers, and outlaws, but now even LADIES have them" (not quite word for word, but you get the gist). At some point the journos will realise that tattoos being mainstream hasn't exactly been news for hundreds of years now, but until then, we can look forward to this article doing the rounds every time someone realises Samantha Cameron has a dolphin tattoo or Justin Trudeau has a globe and a raven.
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Post by joem on Oct 9, 2017 13:55:51 GMT
Except that's not quite the point. Smoking has been mainstream for centuries but to do it next to a gas leak wouldn't make any sense.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2017 14:01:42 GMT
At some point the journos will realise that tattoos being mainstream hasn't exactly been news for hundreds of years now, but until then, we can look forward to this article doing the rounds every time someone realises Samantha Cameron has a dolphin tattoo or Justin Trudeau has a globe and a raven.Oh Justin. Is it hot in here . . . ?  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2017 14:18:23 GMT
Looks half way to bingo wings to me.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2017 14:18:52 GMT
Except that's not quite the point. Smoking has been mainstream for centuries but to do it next to a gas leak wouldn't make any sense. Well, no, it wasn't intended to be the point, just an amusing aside to the topic. But if I have to tie it into the thread, then although I don't know any specific names, I nonetheless can't think of a reason why a playwright in the 1980s wouldn't have tattoos. Even a buttoned-up playwright. Even fairly large tattoos. Anything's possible, and as the aside pointed out, tattoos aren't quite as counter-culture as the semi-regular articles on the subject want us to believe. @ryan, thank you for your service.  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2017 14:56:24 GMT
Ryan, thank you for your service. De rien. Always a pleasure, never a chore. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2017 15:26:31 GMT
I don't see why a playwright in the 80s wouldn't have a tattoo. King George V in the 30s had one. Now, and this may surprise you, I'm not normally known for being particularly shallow but my view of tattoos is that I don't mind them and often rather like them but it entirely depends on who has them. For example, here is a theatrical tattoo that I'd happily have all over my body. In every room of the house in fact. And twice at the weekend.  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2017 15:28:59 GMT
Ah Ramin. Ramin, Ramin. I volunteer to do an extensive study of your bodyart. Twice. And three times at the weekend.
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Post by joem on Oct 9, 2017 17:10:15 GMT
Except that's not quite the point. Smoking has been mainstream for centuries but to do it next to a gas leak wouldn't make any sense. Well, no, it wasn't intended to be the point, just an amusing aside to the topic. But if I have to tie it into the thread, then although I don't know any specific names, I nonetheless can't think of a reason why a playwright in the 1980s wouldn't have tattoos. Even a buttoned-up playwright. Even fairly large tattoos. Anything's possible, and as the aside pointed out, tattoos aren't quite as counter-culture as the semi-regular articles on the subject want us to believe. @ryan , thank you for your service. Fair enough. Can you then think of any playwright in the eighties who had one? In any case the point continues to be whether every part is tattoo-appropriate if a play is performed in its historical context. |
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Post by joem on Oct 9, 2017 17:11:09 GMT
I don't see why a playwright in the 80s wouldn't have a tattoo. King George V in the 30s had one. Now, and this may surprise you, I'm not normally known for being particularly shallow but my view of tattoos is that I don't mind them and often rather like them but it entirely depends on who has them. For example, here is a theatrical tattoo that I'd happily have all over my body. In every room of the house in fact. And twice at the weekend. King George V was, of course, a sailor. |
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Post by Jan on Oct 9, 2017 17:22:26 GMT
The thing that amuses me is how every few years or so you'll get a bunch of news articles saying things like "tattoos used to be the preserve of sailors, bikers, and outlaws, but now even LADIES have them" (not quite word for word, but you get the gist). At some point the journos will realise that tattoos being mainstream hasn't exactly been news for hundreds of years now, but until then, we can look forward to this article doing the rounds every time someone realises Samantha Cameron has a dolphin tattoo or Justin Trudeau has a globe and a raven. However tattoos for women hasn’t been mainstream for more than a couple of decades and I think historically that is true too. I remember when Jimmy Carr first started he used to have a joke “You used to have to pay to see a fat tattooed lady at the funfair ... now they’re everywhere”. |
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Tattoos
Oct 9, 2017 21:41:57 GMT
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Post by Dawnstar on Oct 9, 2017 21:41:57 GMT
I've seen actors with tattoos cover them up onstage with flesh coloured make-up, with mixed success. So I guess before getting tattoos it'd be sensible for actors to consider if they really want them enough to potentially spend however much time each day covering them up before going onstage. Personally I'm not keen on tattoos & would never have one myself.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Oct 9, 2017 22:07:28 GMT
There are cover-up sleeves available - which reduces the need for extensive make-up.
I am sure there are a lot more actors with tattoo than we know about - it is just that their costumes have never let the ink see the light of day in the roles they have played.
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Post by Jan on Oct 10, 2017 6:25:54 GMT
Tattoos in the news I see, with Dame Judi Dench revealing she once had a fake one on her bum saying "JD loves HW", HW being Harvey Weinstein.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2017 7:38:48 GMT
Things Monkey? actors are people too (except when Ryan gets hold of them) |
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