When Malcolm Whitfield decided to get a tattoo, he knew he needed to get it with his twin brother Mike.

The two spent 18 inseparable years together growing up in Rochester. When it came to choosing colleges, they ended up living in different states. Malcolm came to Syracuse University, while Mike went to George Washington University.

Before they left for college, during their senior year of high school, they went to great lengths to show their parents the importance of getting matching tattoos. They created a convincing presentation, complete with a PowerPoint.

“We aren’t sentimental people or anything, but we wanted something to symbolize the last 18 years,” said Whitfield, a junior art photography major.

Of course, after a while, their parents caved and gave them the green light to get inked.

The two brothers grew up with a comic book obsession: They collected memorabilia, knew all the characters and joined Facebook groups dedicated to comic books. Thus, they got the X-Men logo with the motto “mutatis mutandis” circling it. The Latin phrase translates to “that which is necessary to be changed, will be changed.”

“It sucks that we both went off to different colleges, but I had to experience change in order to grow,” Whitfield said.

The tattoo parlor where he got the piece done is one of the most respected in Rochester: Love Hate Tattoo. Whitfield’s uncle, a cop, referred him to the place, which has a good reputation for its cleanliness and precision. And the artist of the tattoos, Adrien Moses Clark, was voted one of the best tattoo artists in Rochester this past year.

The session took about an hour and a half. Whitfield explained that the pain he felt when getting the tattoo was mostly due to part of the tattoo needing to be completely filled in with black ink. Each little prick of the needle became painful after a while, he said.

He laughed as he remembered walking into the parlor. “I felt like such a noob,” he said. “My parents had to pay for it and stuff. All of these people have a bunch of tattoos all over and I’m just like, ‘I’d like one on my arm, please.’”

Whitfield has quite an extensive list of tattoos he would like to get in the future, but he wants to wait until he can fund them himself, and until he feels he deserves them. A few among the list include a badge from “Star Trek,” a piece from “The Iron Giant,” a blues guitar and the Ananse phrase for “creativity.”

While he wants more ink, he said during the past few years that his current tattoo’s meaning has continued to evolve as his brother serves in the Air Force.

Said Whitfield: “My brother is stationed in Florida right now. I feel like I am attached to my tattoo even more now than ever before because of that.”

Published on November 11, 2013 at 11:17 pm

Contact Naomi: ncfalk@syr.edu