Abby Palazzo

Atlanta Tattoo Arts Convention: Express Yourself

When I first entered the massive lobby that held the Atlanta Tattoo Arts Convention, I wondered if I was hearing bees. The “zzz” of electric tattoo guns filled the air. As someone with no tattoos, I felt out of place at first as I wandered through the room, past table after table covered with thin black cloth and plastic scrapbooks filled with samples of artists’ work. There is no replacement for a tattoo - nothing else is both permanent and customizable. It’s art you commit to for the rest of your life...unless you get a cover-up, of course.

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Jamie Okuma: No Substitutes

Every April when music festival season rolls around, I brace myself for hours of scrolling through Instagram as Coachella and Bonnaroo attendees show off their carefully coordinated outfits for the world to see. At least once a year, I run across a photo among the deluge that features a white girl wearing a Native American tribal headdress, also known as a war bonnet.

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Bong Joon Ho: Living Legend

I knew I had to see the movie Parasite as soon as I saw the trailer last fall. I rarely go to the movies, but last November, a friend and I immediately made plans to see the South Korean film when we learned it would come to an independent theater in our college town. Frustratingly, after we arrived at the first screening of the weekend, the theater ran into technical difficulties; we had to leave halfway through the movie and return later to watch the second half. In hindsight, though, I’m glad we did. The emotional sucker punch that is Parasite would have been overwhelming for me to view all at once. 

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Robert Pattinson: Work in Progress

Ever since the Beatles and Elvis divided a sea of screaming fangirls in the 1960s, mainstream media has been pitting male entertainment professionals against each other. Right on the heels of the Backstreet Boys vs. N’Sync rivalry, these celebrity match-ups came to a head in 2008, when we saw adolescents sort themselves into Team Edward and Team Jacob with the release of the first installment in the Twilight film series. For many of us, this was the first time that the chiseled Robert Pattinson appeared on our horizons. It wouldn’t be the last. 

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