The answer is simple, a zombie pin-up girl!!
Alright, so I realize the whole “zombies are cool” thing is getting a little overplayed in the media lately. It seems every week there are at least 3 zombie walks across North America, a new zombie movie is released every other week, and everywhere you go someone is talking about the walking dead.
I honestly think a bit of overexposure may be good for the genre. And I’m not saying that because I think everyone should be prepared for the upcoming zombie apocalypse, but more that when something hits the point of over-saturation in the public eye, it has no choice but to fade away into obscurity for a time. It is during this time that those who are really devoted to the idea get a chance to re-evaluate the subject matter, and work on it without scrutiny. Think about the whole zombie phenomenon. While the zombie movie has been around for decades, it really didn’t hit it’s first major peak until the late 70s and early 80s. By the mid-80s zombie movies were everywhere and people were just sick of them, which led to the not being popular in the mainstream media. Between the mid-80s and the early 00s, the zombie devotees were basically on the back-burner, never going away, but also never becoming popular. During this time a new wave of creative minds got behind the zombie genre, which lead to it’s recent resurgence. So yes, there may be a lot of crappy zombie movies/books out there, that lapse has also given us books like World War Z, and The Walking Dead, as well as films such as Zombieland. I’m sure in the next few years interest will wane again, and it will fade into obscurity, and be replaced by some other popular fad, but until then we’re riding the wave of the undead which it hitting it’s crescendo this fall with AMC and Frank Darabont adapting The Walking Dead into a television series, which looks like it will probably out-do every zombie film/show that came before it.
The same of course can apply to all popular trends. They will reach a point where the public tolerance will hit it’s limit, and then be replaced with something new. While in obscurity, the artists, writers, whatever, have an opportunity to take what they love and refine it without restriction until it eventually becomes popular again.
So, all that said, let’s take a look at this tattoo by Gonzofreelancer from the Pinup Tattoo gallery. This tattoo is actually a perfect example of how something old has become fresh and new, while still holding true to its roots. The pinup girl is a classic tattoo image, that for a time was exceedingly popular. It never went away of course, but other trends emerged and pinups weren’t the first choice for people for a time. So while the pinup girls themselves also faded away from the public eye, so did the tattoos of them. During the time that they weren’t on the forefront of popular culture, those dedicated to them kept their images alive and worked to keep them modern, while maintaining their classical beauty. Sure enough, as things changed, eventually what was now old, became new again, and the pinup girl (and the subsequent tattoos) became popular again. Only this time it wasn’t just a simple picture of a girl in a swimsuit painted on a plane, now we have strong beautiful tattooed and pierced women, posing in all sorts of outfits, making the idea of a pinup girl fresh again. The tattoos followed suit, with modern interpretations of old-school tattoos.
So when looking at this great tattoo of the zombie pinup girl, you’re not only looking at a tattoo, but also the long legacies of tattoos, pinup girls, and zombies, merged together into a single image.
