Tattoo Planning

In the last few weeks I have been furiously researching, planning, preparing and obsessing about my new tattoo!!!! I have wanted a tattoo since 1986, when I saw my friend and good stepfather Forbes get one. He has a magnificent Japanese monk committing suicide on his back, and lovely sumo wrestler water nymphs making a Busby Berkeley splash scene on his arms. The piece is magnificent, and looks great today as it did when Don Ed Hardy finished it over twenty years ago. Forbes takes very good care of his skin and only exposes it to candlelight.

I’ve spent weeks now, poring through design books, tattoo books, art books, collecting images on my desktop, hoping, fantasizing, dreaming. It is amazing how many people have tattoos, and big ones. There are of course the legions of people with small butterflies, hearts, a single rose, tiny things, but then there are the formidable dragons that wrap lovingly around entire torsos, giant wings that sprout from backs and threaten to take flight. There are nipples turned into hearts, skin rupturing to reveal robot parts underneath, numerous tributes to 9-11 and people who have died yet now live on in their loved one’s skin.

I love tattoos because they represent a brief glimpse of a person’s insides, their passions, their true heart. It is like a riddle, a complex haiku that you may or may not be able to decipher, that you are fortunate to even have the opportunity. Even after the thrill is gone, the tattoo remains, as a reminder of a personal history, a life lived, flawed yet genuine, faded yet viable, and if it is visible to us, in daily life, it modifies the public personae in a way that no other physical alteration does.

I love heavily tattooed women. I imagine their lives are filled with sensuality and excess, madness and generosity, impulsive natures and fights. They look like they have endured much pain and sadness, yet have the ability to transcend all of it by documenting it on the body. Women’s bodies are fraught with controversy, because it is believed that our bodies belong to the state. We are not supposed to choose what we can do with them. We don’t have complete control over reproduction. Though we can get abortions (right now) we must be in the right place at the right time, and even then we might need the consent of someone else (a man) in order to take care of OURSELVES!!!

Transgressive behavior of any kind is intolerable. If you are larger than the models in the magazines, you are shamed for your size, and urged to diminish yourself by any means necessary. If you decide to show your body, then you are punished for being too sexual, both by the status quo and feminists alike. There are women out there, who although they will say they are feminist, don’t like women. It is mostly a particular generation of so-called feminists who have a peculiar aversion to women’s bodies. They don’t want to see them, they don’t want to praise them, they just want to build a shapeless, formless, genderless warrior race, without baby tees and makeup (but please don’t burn the bras because the nipples must be hidden under layers of foam and wire – so just wear two bras) because they think if we want to feel good about our bodies, it must be a weakness for the male gaze that must be stamped out for the good of the cause.

Having lived under such a regime for so many years, I am finally free, and for once in my life, actually able to do something with my body that I have always wanted to do, because I feel safe enough to. Nobody is going to judge me for wanting to wear a beautiful piece of art on my skin. I will not allow it. This is my body, and this is my body with tattoos. Any questions? Slide show to come….

5 thoughts on “Tattoo Planning

  1. Wow, that was beautifly written, i too, am a huge fan of heavily tattoed women and aspire someday to join their ranks. Your tattoos are stunning and suit you very well, i admire you for beign proud enough with your body to transform it into a living canvas. I am a huge fan, and i am inspired by you in many ways. Thank you.

  2. Different styles and designs of northface outlet are now available to make your wrist beautiful. You can choose from the wide variety of cheap northface jackets by comparing lots of perfect and stunning pieces. These north face gloves would be nice investments for you in long term. These north face sale are brilliant and prove to be wonderful for you while it makes you stand out of the crowd. The dashing and extraordinary north face you get will attract every eye in a crowd and makes you feel more confident.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *