Your Newspaper - Bride's Guide

Posted on: December 24, 2008

The Tattoo Taboo

Brides face the decision on whether to cover up or show off their body art

By Nina Yun
CTW Features

Although tattoos have become more mainstream in recent years, those with the ink still face the taboo. For brides, the question is: To cover or not to cover?

For Chelley Worth of Providence, R.I., she chose not to cover.

“It’s a great part of me,” says Worth, who currently works as bridal consultant for David’s Bridal and has a long history in marketing and event planning. “And finding a dress style that would cover up my tattoos, I would be covered up to my neck. Or I would be completely covered in cover up.”

Instead, Worth has decided on a trumpet-style taffeta wedding gown with a strapless sweetheart neckline. Worth and her fiancé both will be wearing Chuck Taylor sneakers at the wedding, a mix of traditional and the not-so-traditional that their wedding photographer Mike Allebach loves.

Worth has two half-sleeves, tattoos on her back, stomach and legs, but keeps them covered up during work. And despite having the support of her family and friends of showing off her tattoos on the big day, Worth has already felt the stigma of being a tattooed bride.

“I went to this photographer and I asked them how they would shoot my tattoos. They told me they could just airbrush them out,” Worth says. “I got offended because that wasn’t a concern of mine. I wanted to know how they would shoot my tattoos well.”

After some searching, Worth got in contact with Allebach Photography, a studio located near Philadelphia that focuses on tattooed brides.

“I like the mixture of something beautiful like a wedding with something people don’t typically expect, so a bride with tattoos,” says Mike Allebach, photographer and founder. “It’s artistic. Tattoos are used to artistically identify a person. I just like capturing that. I love tattoos, and even though I don’t have any myself, it’s an artistic expression that I can identify with.”

Allebach says many soon-to-be brides are relieved when they find him because of his own understanding and background of a more alternative lifestyle. Worth, who says the worst misconceptions of tattoos and tattooed people are unlike her upbringing, a girl who went to private school and college. Worth says that even though tattoos have become more accepted into the mainstream, tattooed brides have not.

Worth and Allebach understand the dilemma in the decision and the politics of wedding planning, but both stress that the decision should be the bride’s alone.

“I mean my gut instinct is don’t cover it up,” Allebach says. “You spent all this money, you thought a long time about what tattoos you want. I wouldn’t let any one pressure, or cover up your tattoos. It’s a unique expression; it’s something to be proud of.”

For those brides who have a single or small tattoos to cover up, Worth says there are cover up kits available at bridal boutiques or cosmetic lines that have theater-grade thick makeup.

“It’s a personal decision,” Worth says. “I understand it can get complicated when it’s your parents or your finance’s parents that are paying for the wedding and they feel like they have some say, but it also has to be about you. It’s your wedding.”