In New York last weekend, alternative media appeared in two very different places. The first was a tattoo parlour in Brooklyn, where I interviewed a master of the art for my next book (about concepts of beauty). The tattoos on his arms were like long gloves to the elbow. I asked him if there were any trends in tattooing. Text, he told me. People often asked for text to be tattooed on their body : a quotation, a phrase, or sometimes an entire poem. They usually specified the font. « And they always want it in the bumpiest place, like the ribs. »
I wonder whether the trend has grown out of some kind of nostalgia for the written word - the handwriting we no longer use, the printing presses that will soon become redundant ?
The next media experience was the elevator at The Standard hotel in the Meatpacking District. This is no ordinary hotel : it's a monolithic slab of glass that would not look out of place in the film 2001. In the elevator, the artist Marco Brambilla has installed a video projection depicting heaven and hell. As the elevator rises, you head for heaven. And as it descends... well, you get the idea. At the top of the elevator there is indeed a taste of heaven, in the form of the Boom Boom Room bar on the 18th floor, which serves some of the best cocktails in New York. But get there early, because the tough doorkeepers make it hellishly difficult to get in to.
