Facial tattoos, once largely confined to street gangs, have grown more popular among teens and young adults, who generally have them done by unlicensed artists in private homes, authorities say.
Wheeler, an underground tattoo artist known as "J Artist," loves visual art, got his first tattoo when he was 17 and has been tattooing others for about two years.
Recently, in a basement in Oxford Circle, the buzz of a friend's tattoo gun on a woman's belly provided the soundtrack for Wheeler to discuss face tattoos.
"Mike Tyson, that's what made me want to get a tattoo on my face," Wheeler said.
Struggles with depression and anxiety four years ago left him unable to work, Wheeler said. "I figured another way of getting money is doing something I like to do," he said.
Body art became an addiction, and six years after the first one, Wheeler has gotten 70 tats all over his body - including on his face, neck and inside both ears.
"I did it to be different," he said. "One thing I didn't think about is what happens when I get older."
Lt. John Walker of the Philadelphia Police Southwest Detective Division, said he first saw facial tattoos on gang members in West Philly about five years ago.
"Obviously, these kids want to announce where they're from," Walker said.
The fad has grown to teens and young adults getting tatts as varied as the names of deceased loved ones or dollar signs and spider webs tattooed on their faces and necks, all in the name of creative expression.
But much of it is done outside the laws that govern licensed tattoo parlors, which are subject to health regulations.
"When there's a new trend, it's always some people that try to top everybody else with the most outrageous of them all," said Darryl Williams, a self-taught tattoo artist from West Philadelphia.
