On Tattoos...

This is another one of those subjects near and dear to me...we were talking about it at work the other day...

I have 3 tattoos - a medium (4 X 6) sized peace and prosperity Sanskrit to which was added a half moon and a heart...with some iddy biddy starbursty things ...the Sanskrit is black, ½ moon is yellow and heart is red)...on my left wing (sorta shoulder kinda back kinda and a 2 by 2 by 2 Celtic trinity knot on my right outside ankle...the outline of which is black and inside is colored royal purple...

I wanted my first tattoo when I was about 15...but I am an addictive person by nature (this I know)...and was raised by a cop...so...he and I told myself that if I really really really wanted one I could have one for my 40th b'day and that's when I got the Sanskrit...followed by the star and heart combo.... I got the trinity knot when I moved to BC 7 years ago...

The biggest part of the decision for me both times was finding something personal enough that I would still be proud of it as an old woman in a rocking chair.

When I was a kid I thought that I would get a sweetheart rose over my left breast and as I aged I could add to the stem and end up with an American beauty (the ole sock n ball syndrome!) I was able to talk myself outta that one...

I have wanted to get a broken heart over my left breast for many years now...but I have stopped myself for a bunch of reasons...the last time was because I thought that a broken heart would be too symbolic of the jackass that I had just recently been separated from...he that robbed me and precipitated my move to BC...broke literally and figuratively! His last name was Sullivan, so in the depths of my depression I decided on a broken heart with the word "Sully'd" over it....

Thank all the gods I was able to snap outta that one!

I've even thought about having a zipper tattooed over my abdominal scars as I am recently had my 8th abdominal surgery (and hopefully the last!)...but I betcha I can think of something nicer to put elsewhere instead!

Both of my tattoos have been part of bonding rituals with my sister and a woman who has been a sister for over 30 years...they both have more than just the 2 we got together...my kid sister actually has 9 tattoos...makes me laugh....Mom always used to say: "my oldest daughter is a biker...she has no tattoos, my son was a sailor, he has no tattoos...my baby is a college kid...she has 9!" I think that only two of my sister"s tattoos are above the knee!

I once knew a biker that was a classic example of the old joke about a sailor having a girlfriend in every port...you know the one where the guy has like 5 women's names x'd out one after the other on his arm...this guy had been married 7 times by the time he was 40...I once told him that contrary to what his mother told him he didn't have to marry them to sleep with them...but I digress again....he had every one of his wives names tattooed on himself somewhere...I guess the idea being that if the latest wife got bored she could spend an hour or two reading his tatts...or maybe ex'ing out the previous ex's?

I absolutely love good skin art...the operative word being "good" ...and I am more and more attracted to tribal and Celtic works these days.

I have seen some really good work, and I have seen some really really bad work, there sure as hell is no accounting for taste. I used to work with a beautiful young woman that had a large Persian cat tattooed on her left thigh...it was all in black relief with piercing blue eyes...and was about a foot long (I think the model cat in question was actually smaller). When she married she and her husband became very avid "dog people" and she was really embarrassed to wear shorts. And I also once knew a very young woman that got the HD crest tattooed over her pubic hair with bat wings running down each inside thigh to her knee! How'd ya like to be her ob/gyn??? And

Recently I worked with a woman for about a year whose ex-husband owned a tattoo shop here in the city...she had these lovely Japanese sleeves done....and all sorts of other tattoos. So one day she and I are in the ladies room and I says to her..."so what did you do over the weekend?" to which she answers "I got my guns outlined". "Guns?" says I to which she pulls up her and lowers her pants to expose a pair of luger looking revolvers tattooed on her abdomen. I guess I must have looked puzzled cos she shot back at me "well at least I don't have a rose tattooed on my tit!...only whores do that!"...I've know a lot of very lovely women with roses tattooed over their hearts over the years...but she was the first women I'd ever met with lugers on her pubic bone!

Here's another thing about tattoos...if you are a bathing beauty I wouldn't recommend it...the sun bleaches the colors out and you'll eventually need to have them redone...and excessive sun over long periods of time is what causes that sorta leaching effect that you see it old tattoos (where the lines look blurry)

The biggest thing is...they don't go away...even laser removal doesn't leave you with pristine skin...you still have marks/scars....so if you decide to take the plunge...make damn good and sure that you won't wake up in 10 years wanting to amputate your arm cos the stupid old thing won't wash off!

Here's a puzzle for you...

As much as I like skin art...ust don' get the whole piercing thing? Eyebrows, belly buttons, nipples lord tundering jayzuz that looks painful! and the branding thing and the making the pierced holes huge...

I don't get that either...

do ya suppose it's cos I'm getting old?