Not-so-taboo Tattoos (alternate title: Why I Think Tattoos Are So Freakin' COOL!)

I, like most other nice, Southern, middle class, American girls who is part of what they call Generation X, was brought up to think that only bikers, macho military guys, and prisoners had tattoos and that no nice, self-respecting girl would have one.

Well, I find myself totally obsessed with tattoos.

I think it all started (insert dream sequence and harp music here) when a high school friend (purely platonic, mind you), got a big tattoo of a wolf that looked like it was ripping thru his arm, blood and all, right after we graduated from high school in 1990. For some strange reason, that tattoo gave me a secret little carnal thrill. I loved looking at that tattoo. The tattoo itself was a very well done tattoo, and all nice girls like rebellious boys, but I think it was the PERMANENCE that impressed me the most. I knew this tattoo would be on his arm FOREVER, and that, to me, was the most thrilling part - a permanent, if semi-barbaric, way to express yourself on your own skin!

Fast forward 3 years, to 1993. I have just returned from a 6 month stint of drunken debauchery in Tokyo, where I saw several models that were my age or younger, that had 'target' tattoos - the typical sun-on-fire tattoos on the small of their backs. That was the first time that I saw a tattoo on a girl in that area, and I thought it looked very hip and sexy. Once I got back to the States, I promptly made an appointment to get a tattoo of a yin and yang symbol on fire on the small of my back (okay, I admit, it wasn't very original) - until I walked into the tattoo parlor and overheard the tattooists talking about a wussy Marine who had cried like a baby when he got his tattoo. "Oh, hell no!" I thought, as I rapidly exited stage left.

Fast forward 9 years, to 2002. I have metamorphasized from a carefree, if penniless, bikini-clad Florida teenager to a yuppified wife, mother of 2 beautiful little girls, military veteran, and professional writer (of the technical species). The thought of a tattoo hasn't even flitted across my mind for more than a few fleeting seconds over the past 9 years.

Well, that's not EXACTLY true - I HAVE been in a tattoo parlor, replete with seedy facade, 70's era wood panelling, and yellowed flash on the walls, to get my belly button pierced. I know, I know, SAFE tattoos and peircings are all about hygiene, and she DID use an autoclave to sterilize the tools she used to pierce my skin, so all was not lost.

TO BE CONTINUED...