On a recent visit to Sesame Place, a theme park near Philadelphia based on the popular television show Sesame Street, I was struck by the adundance of tattoos on so many of the male patrons. Given the popularity of tattoos in contemporary American culture and the fact that many men would be shirtless on a hot day spent around water amusements, this should not have been surprising. Still, the tattoos created a feeling of uncontrollable aesthetic difference in a park devoted entirely to a show for young children with safe and cute furry characters. While the park has a sign restricting visitors from entering if they are wearing "offensive clothing", a large and often poorly made tattoo, or a tattoo with morbid or gang-related imagery is harder and more awkward to control.

I surreptitiously photographed as many of these tattooed dads and family men as I could document without getting caught. All of these photos were taken on August 19, 2010. Each photo can be clicked on and enlarged to see the tattoos in greater detail.

Marc Fischer: marc [at] publiccollectors [dot] org