Landscape of the skin

By SANDY LONG

NARROWSBURG, NY — Now 83, Audrey Bodrewicz waited until she was 79 to do it. Tom Coacci had his first at the age of 50. Janet and Larry Wilgus have done it so many times they’ve lost count. For these devotees to the art of ink, tattoos are where it’s at, whether that’s on a shoulder, ankle, back or elsewhere on the body’s canvas.

The husband-and-wife team ply their trade at Janet’s Rivertown Tattoo, where they spend their hours, according to Larry, “making Narrowsburg a more colorful place, one body at a time.”

Janet, who got Larry into inking, said their clients come to them with a strong sense of who they are and what they want. “Customers here are so amazing and interesting,” she said. “They’re educated consumers. They don’t want what everyone else wants.”

Some ink is laid in celebration of life events. Some is laid in memory of loved ones. For many, getting tattooed is a rite of passage, while for others, it’s a test of one’s commitment to undergo the process and coexist with the enduring legacy left by the needles.

Janet helped both Bodrewicz and Coacci through their inky initiation and they have come to see themselves as members of the extended family spawned by the couple’s work. In fact, an appreciation for the art form has grown in their own families as well.

Coacci’s wife Cecilia and two of their three children are now tattooed. The Damascus resident, who runs a hauling business in the region, was in fact inspired by the tattoos of his 75-year-old mother. In spite of a fear of needles, Tom’s sense of trust in the Wilgus team has led to spider webs on both elbows and roughly 20 tattoos on the rest of his body. As the former owner of Tom’s Bait Shop a few doors down, Coacci also sports two inked images of helgramites, a popular bait used by regional fishermen, on the backs of his hands.

Mother of five, most of Bodrewicz’s children also sport tattoos. The octogenarian wears an inked portrait of her daughter, Linda, who was murdered by her husband of 20 years. For many, such memorial tattoos provide a permanent means of honoring a person, pet or event. Bodrewicz has even had her beloved Dalmatian Evie’s portrait tattooed onto her arm. To celebrate the passing of each year, she makes her annual trip to get a new tattoo from Janet.

No stranger to tests of physical endurance, Bodrewicz’s past is studded with feats of accomplishment from her days as a performer on roller skates with the Ringling Brothers Circus, where she spun by the neck and performed aerial work in “The Cloud Ballet.” Describing the process, she explained, “You just dive out head first and you hang.”

Then there were the days performing on the Martha Raye Show, and her work with a long list of stars like Bo Jangles, Jackie Gleason and the Nat King Cole Trio. Bodrewicz was also a member of The Four Macks, listed as “four lovely girls in sensational whirls.” And although she resides in Hicksville, Long Island now, her family has been coming to Narrowsburg for more than a century. Asked why she waited so long to get her first tattoo, Bodrewicz replied, “I couldn’t do it when I was in show business. I was thinking about it for half a lifetime, but now I can do whatever I want.”

As long as there is unadorned skin left to ink, both Bodrewicz and Coacci plan to keep making pilgrimages to the shrine where an idea in someone’s mind can become a permanent painting on their skin.

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