One day I walked into the room and Pauseliveaction Junior was watching an American show where some scuzzy-looking types were tattooing people. I was alarmed – was this fit viewing for a pre-teen?
The show was Miami Ink, and it turns out that it is appropriate viewing, and it’s brilliant. It’s particularly brilliant if you like very tattooed men, which I do. The narrator and owner of the tattoo shop in which it’s set is shaven-headed former Israeli army officer Ami James – and what a lovely man he is (and v-e-r-y easy on the eye). The programme benefits richly from the regular shots of him topless. It’s so we can admire the artwork, of course, but the canvas is pretty darn nice as well.
On Miami Ink we don’t just see the tattoo artists at work (and they are artists, all of them absolute geniuses at what they do), we hear the reasons their clients want a tattoo, what it will mean to them and why they choose a particular design. For some it’s just that they like having illustrated skin, but for many the tattoo will be a memorial for someone they’ve lost, or a celebration, or a way of marking a life transition.
It’s not just tattooing, it’s flirt therapy as well. Ami James could (and probably does) flirt for Florida, in the way only a man who looks like he could kill you with his bare hands but is as gentle as a lamb can do.
HOLBY CITY BEHIND THE SCREEN
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