Ink Addiction
And now for the history of my tattoos…
Back in the wild and woolly 1980s I was living in Hollyweird, attending rock n’roll shows on the Sunset Strip, and dating guys whose hair was longer than mine. Tattoos were just starting to lose their social stigma [although not near to the point of acceptability that they now have] and so, as I was definitely old enough to know better, I decided at the age of 28 to get a tattoo. I should mention here that tattoos are highly addictive. So, I went and got a small rose [not much bigger than your thumbnail] on my right shoulder blade. I was hooked. I went back later and had my initials tattooed underneath the rose. Stupid decision since I changed my name when I got married and plus my initials. Well, that and people kept asking me if “JB” was my boyfriend. Not too much later I got a 2″ tinted green dragon on my left shoulder blade. Now I had lopsided tattoos . . . so of course I went back later and asked to have a mirror of the dragon tattood over the rose. The artist said he’d need to use a slightly different dragon to cover the rose . . . I got a different size/style dragon in red/blue, so now I had two dragons of different sizes and I still wasn’t happy. A few years later I invested $2,500 and much pain into FIVE laser surgeries to remove both dragons. Unfortunately, I found out that GREEN is the only colour that cannot be removed. So I wound up with a green squiggle on my back. Not acceptable, but I lived with it for several more years. I swore I would never get another tattoo. Temporary tattoos then came into play and I had one put on my ankle just for fun. And I loved it . . . just loved it. So I took the design to a tattoo artist and after several tries we jointly designed a tattoo that combined butterflies and tribal lines. It hurt like hell. After that, I swore I would never get another tattoo. About three years later I’m living in Houston and two fairly conservative girlfriends decide they want to get tattoos. I tell them two things: [1] Of course it doesn’t hurt [which is a blatant lie but tradition for those of us who have survived the pain]; and [2] I’ll get one if you get one [also a lie because I had twice sworn never to get another tattoo and the second time, I meant it!]. Now, I will admit to having previously just *looked* at some tattoo designs that could cover the ugly green squiggle, but I was just LOOKING. So the girls got their tattoos and right about at the height of their pain I called out “Hey, remember when I said it doesn’t hurt? Well, I LIED! bwahahaha!” Meantime, one of the 23-yr old tattooists [I seem to attract of lot of 23-yr olds] was looking at my green squiggle and we were casually flirting and discussing which designs would work to cover it even though I was NOT going to get another tattoo. And it’s not like I’m really into butterflies, the ones on my ankle tattoo just happened to work for the design. But there was this one gorgeous Monarch butterfly that he said would cover the squiggle. Did I mention I was not going to get another tattoo? Well, I didn’t. That day. I went back about a week later and allowed the 23-yr old to cover my green squiggle with the Monarch butterfly. And I’m truly glad I did for all the obvious reasons. I had the ankle tattoo recoloured to match the shoulder tattoo around the same time, but only because the 23-yr old did it for free in the hope I’d grant him a date. My ankle swelled up like a case of elephantitis and I could barely walk for 3 days. And now, I swear, I will never get another tattoo!!!!
p.s., the Monarch butterfly is the Texas State Bug.
p.p.s., I have since had toe-ring tattoos placed on both feet!!!!!!!
I’ve also given-up swearing oaths.
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