Lori here~
I always loved the title of that Rolling Stones album even if I didn't like the music. Anyway, to celebrate Tattoo week, in honor of Karen's new release THE MISSING INK, I'll admit I've kicked around the idea of a tattoo. Not so much earlier in my life, but in recent years. I thought it was cool when I read that the Dixie Chicks and their band members all got little chicken tracks tattooed on their feet when the albums hit a certain number in sales and for Grammy nominations. What a cool way to mark an event. Then I heard getting a tat on the top of your foot is the most painful section of skin, since there's little skin there, and my enthusiasm waned.
Tattoos aren't as taboo as they once were. With shows like Miami Ink and LA Ink, tattooists have become celebrities. My alter ego Lorelei James wrote an erotic western romance, BRANDED AS TROUBLE, about a tattooist who has set up shop in a small Wyoming town and the prejudice she deals with from the older generation and the "that's so cool!" excitement of the younger crowd. Most of my characters in the Julie Collins series are tattooed. Why? Because a lot of what I wrote about why motorcycle clubs enforce tats on their members is true. My daughters have even received rub on tattoos in birthday party goodie bags.
When I bought a season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on VHS some years back, it came with a "tramp stamp" temporary tattoo. So I asked Mr. LGA to put it on me, so I could test drive a tat before I committed to the real deal. It didn't look bad and I thought it'd be fun to prank the kids and tell them mommy got a tattoo. I showed them, they were appropriately awed. I never get to pull practical jokes, so I was feeling a bit cocky...until we went out to my folk's house for supper, and my three year old blurted, "Grandma, mommy got a tattoo on her butt!" It took some fast talking to convince my mom it wasn't real. And I fully expect the instant my 17 yr old turns 18 next June, she'll be first in line at Thrash's Living Art, here in Rapid City, to get inked and pierced.
Not having a tattoo is a rarity these days among my age group and the younger gen. It doesn't matter if I'm at the gym or a concert or a rodeo, I see tats everywhere. And I'm sure there are a lot more I'm not seeing (like the dick tattoo) I have an older friend whose husband was in the Navy for years and he told me a friend of his had his dick tattooed like a barber's pole. He swore he'd seen it. I kept wondering about the logistics of putting on the tat for the tattooist. Mind boggling.
The oddest place I've actually seen a tattoo is on the inside curve of an ear. A woman I knew had a long, skinny bird tattooed from top to bottom. The effect? It looked like a melted peacock. It was cool, but damn, I cannot imagine how much that hurt.
Where's the weirdest place you've seen a tat?
And buy Karen's book!
I thought it was cool when I read that the Dixie Chicks and their band members all got little chicken tracks tattooed on their feet when the albums hit a certain number in sales and for Grammy nominations. What a cool way to mark an event. Then I heard getting a tat on the top of your foot is the most painful section of skin, since there's little skin there, and my enthusiasm waned.
For a fleeting moment, I thought it would be cool to tattoo a little book on my foot each time I released a new one. Now I'm glad that I didn't. It's been a few years between books and I don't need the reminder every time I look at my feet.
So, instead I look at my starfish tat and smile. Yes, it hurt, but you could handle it, Lori.
Posted by: Mary Stella | July 09, 2009 at 08:37 AM
One of our frequent visitors in District Court has a small rose tattooed on her right cheekbone. It was obviously done long time ago, possibly in prison, and let's just it hasn't aged well. I say leave facial tattoos to the Maori.
Posted by: J.D. Rhoades | July 09, 2009 at 02:20 PM
I had a friend with a tattoo of an ant on her foot. It was kind of cute, but it looked very real --- like it should be brushed away, and I always wondered what the point was.
Posted by: AlisonGaylin | July 09, 2009 at 02:50 PM
A friend in the Army, long before tats were considered appropriate for anyone, but especially for women, had a girlfriend with "hot" tattooed over one nipple and "cold" tattooed over the other.
I know because she showed them to me.
He also swore she had an amusement park sign over her happy taco that read "Pay as you enter" but I didn't see that one. I never doubted it was there, however.
She was that kind of girl.
Posted by: David Terrenoire | July 09, 2009 at 03:07 PM
Weirdest places I saw them were on eyelids and inside of a lower lip.
Posted by: Lynn in Texas | July 11, 2009 at 08:05 PM
Weirdest place I ever saw a tattoo? In the State House, probably.
Oh, that's not what you meant?
Posted by: Clea Simon | July 13, 2009 at 10:42 AM