In 2010, The TODAY Show highlighted Richmond in an unexpected way.

NBC’s famed morning show ranked the nation’s most tattooed cities by measuring tattoo shops per capita. RVA came in third. “Perhaps most surprising on our list is the city of Richmond, VA, which averages about 14.5 tattoo shops per 100,000 people,” read the results. “Likely boosting its numbers is its big arts and college community, and the fact that the surrounding suburbs and cities contain plenty more tattoo shops.”

The ranking has popped up on websites and in conversations around town ever since. Later this week, the Valentine Richmond History Center will showcase 100 tattoos created by local artists in History, Ink: The Tattoo Archive Project (disclosure: some of my tattoos are featured in the exhibit).

For those who think that tattoos are an unworthy historical subject, Domenick Casuccio of the Valentine replies “It would be one thing if tattoos were just pictures on peoples’ arms, but they are so much more than that. Each tattoo carries with it a story and a meaning that has the potential to reveal a great deal about the individual who holds it.” Not only will the exhibit feature local artwork, but photographs of the tattoos will be added to the Valentine’s collection of Richmond ephemera, one that totals over 1.5 million objects and artifacts.

To catalogue the tattoos, the museum hired local photographer Terry Brown. Brown said she didn’t add frills to the photography, opting instead to photograph the tattoos “in a more clinical way because the artwork was already there.” Ultimately, she said, “it was about the image.”