I have always loved the arts. As some of you know, that’s what got me into photography – I couldn’t draw. And I think tattoos are a very important part of art.

How many of us have images in our homes that you love so much that you would want to put on your body? But there’s a taboo with tattoos. Some people look at people with tattoos and instantly think that person is a pirate who’s coming to shanghai them or something. The next time you’re in a room with very conservative people, ask how many of them have a tattoo. You might be surprised at how many would say yes.

The image I chose this month is a little different for this blog. Many of my clients know that I do fashion and glamour photography. I do work with some of the local modeling agencies. I’ve had several of my pictures published in JET Magazine’s Beauty of the Week feature and several other swimsuit magazines.

There’s always been a conflict between artists and people who think they’re saving the world from seeing a nude body, or something they deem inappropriate. Did you know that about 50 years after the Sistine Chapel was originally painted by Michelangelo, Pope Pius IV had someone paint fig leaves and loincloths on the nudes in the paintings?

Sometimes when I work on a project, some of my conservative friends speak up loudly and say, “you should not show that,” “you should not put that in your portfolio,” “it’s so inappropriate, it could offend somebody.” What has amazed me about this country is that violence is accepted more easily than a sexy or slightly half-dressed body.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe there should be some guidelines. But it’s amazing how that line moves all the time.

Quite a few years ago, 7-11 stopped selling Playboy magazine, but they were still able to sell Soldier of Fortune, and some of the images in that are just a little bit too much for me. Looking at the horrific pictures from Gettysburg or D-Day with no warning, but you have to have parental guidance to look at a Transformer’s movie.

I was lucky enough last week to go to The Barnes Foundation museum. In the first room, there are over 20 women in paintings showing full nudity. Throughout the whole museum, I kept seeing paintings of the painter’s mistress, in bed, getting out of bed, in a bath tub, a group of women taking a bath by a river. These women were all sizes and ages. And I’m sure a few of those girls in those master’s paintings were under 18. (Please take note that I do NOT think it is okay to photograph or depict girls who are under 18 in adult situations or contexts, I am questioning why it was acceptable back then.) At the museum last week, however, there was no outrage, there was nobody angry, we were all just looking at wonderful pieces of art.

So leaving the museum, I was very confused and very disheartened. What happened? What changed us? The word hypocrite kept going through my mind over and over. If I had the classic 1953 Marilyn Monroe Playboy centerfold hanging in my studio, that would offend people. But going to the museum, the painting Models by Georges Seurat is okay.

Then I was thinking, it was a different date and time, it was so long ago, views about the human body were more loose. Then I was thinking that these were the same times when people were burned at the stake because others thought they were witches.

Then something came back to me. When I was a young photography student, we had the opportunity to photograph nude models. That’s standard in the arts. In this class, we had a model who was European. (Too bad I don’t have those photos, that would have been a great Photo of the Month.) One of the girls asked her, “Aren’t you embarrassed?”

And the model said, “No. In my country, looking at a nude body is nothing, we do it on the beach all the time. The important part is not seeing me, the important part is getting to know me. How many good conversations have you had with a picture? To get to know my soul, and to hear my laughter, and to have a connection, that’s more important than just looking at my body.”

So I guess it’s true: Art is in the eye of the beholder. The people who create the art have to have an open mind, spirit, and soul to create the vision they see.

- Kevin S. Nash

Photo details: Self-assigned project, model’s portfolio, K.S.N. Images, Inc.