Tattoos

Guess whose coming to Chickie's Blog?? Maddy is back. Hooray!!

When I was a child in the 1950s. I rarely saw tattoos.  My uncle who’d been in the Navy sported one on his bicep. A neighbor who’d been on the Arizona in Pearl Harbor had a flag on his shoulder. And a friend had an uncle who’d shown him the one on his forearm, acquired "not by choice" in a concentration camp. But voluntary “body art” in peace time wasn’t a middle class thing that was “done”, at least not on my conservative Montana home ground.

In the 70s, working in an urban emergency room as a social worker, I saw a much wider range of bodies, often naked or nearly so.  Along with confronting or comforting patients, I witnessed the blossoming of tattoos as an art form that was embraced by more than bikers and military men. In popular culture, Janis Joplin brandished hers on the cover of Rolling Stone and women getting divorced got them as a symbol of “reclaiming” their bodies from husbands.

Often someone’s tattoo provided a useful conversation opener in my job–though it could go sideways: “Tell me about your ink” might evoke a story of loss or a happy time, but it is inevitably something personal and often meaningful.

I learned to see tattoos as an important form of expression, a form of asserting who you “belong to” and where in the human community you want to feel connection. 

Whether we ended up talking about allegiance to a gang or a girl band or why families flip out if teenagers claim the right to mark their own bodies, the choice to indelibly mark your own skin is a defining moment.

Even if the choice was impulsive or made years ago, there is a story to the decision and the specifics of the choice. And being willing to hear the story creates new possibilities for connection–which we all need.

Now, the question for today’s post:   

There is no formal, legal age limit on getting a tattoo, but older skin is not the optimal canvas and there are some both health and aesthetic questions to ponder before investing in your own ink, in case you have a sudden urge to get a tattoo.

But even if you NEVER want a tattoo–if you HAD to get a tattoo, say your life depended on it–what would you choose and where would you put it?

Be BOLD.  

Tomorrow is a special day. Stay tuned............