Sunday, August 27, 2006

Getting a Tattoo

I don't know if it is because I live in the liberal oasis of Texas, so filled with alternative lifestyle that NOT having body art and piercings is actually abnormal, but I have always been fascinated with tattoos. I do not have one; I am a blank canvas. But... I am just SICKLY FASCINATED by seeing other people's tattoos. Sometimes I ask about them, what made people decide to have a giant fire breathing dragon emblazoned upon their backs (and did it hurt like a MOTHER having all that done!?). And then I wonder how they selected their desired location. At some point, with some people, it's hard to even find any more blank space upon which to tattoo. But those with one - why do they pick the spot they pick?
When I was about 21, working at an answering service, there was a girl slightly younger than me. I would have described her as very Dallas. Big hair, lots of makeup, the easy sorority type. Not your typical alternative, world-music listening, ring in the nose type. She got a tattoo on her ankle of the Tasmanian Devil. Hello?! When she is 80 years old and her ankle skin is sagging like sharpei flesh, the guy in the wheelchair next to her at the nursing home is going to look over at her ankle and think, "now how the hell do you take a woman seriously with a cartoon on her ankle?" Somehow, for me, it always comes down to how I'll feel about it when I'm 80.
And then there's my husband. Who is, shall we say... "personally conservative" (politically liberal). He's not a jewelry wearer. He has 5 total pairs of shoes, all very sensible and responsible. His clothing is basically a high quality set of Garanimals. Just about any top goes with just about any bottom. His color-blind self can't go wrong and I've saved myself the every-morning wake up question of, "does this go together?!" He is a wonderful man, but stylistically adventurous he is not. I, on the other hand, am especially a shoe whore. And a bit more alternative (evidenced by my 8 holes in my ears).
But I'm going to get a tattoo. I have decided upon my own artistic rendering of The Tree of Life, a symbolic representation of having given birth to my daughter, with her first and middle initial in the tree trunk, and her birthdate in the roots of the tree. Here's a drawing...


And now, the question is.... where to put it? I want to be able to wear a cocktail dress for formal work-oriented occasions, and not have my tattoo visible. Thoughts?

2 comments:

Toastedsuzy said...

I am having the same dilemma exactly.

I knew a woman who had the names of her children tattooed on her neck--beneath each ear (I wrote a poem about it; it's called "The Woman with the Names of Her Children Tattooed on Her Neck")

I have a little cute little lizard on my shoulder, and I like that he is visible when I wear a dress--but my mom doesn't.

Anyway, I want a tatt with my son's name in it, and I don't know where to put it. Not on my lower back (kind of cliche, that although, yours is so pretty and unique, I think it would be a good lower back tattoo.)

I wouldn't do the stomach because there's no telling what havoc time will wreak on it down there.

Butt? Inappropriate.

Oooo, how about the base of your neck. Right below the hairline.

Anyway, it's a beautiful tattoo.

I'm letting the boy design mine.

Sorry I wrote so much.

TS

Trasi said...

For YEARS I thought if I had a tattoo, I would put it on the back of my neck. That was when I had long hair. Now my hair is short, which makes it thereby inconcealable there. I just have to decide how bold I want to be - as much as my husband may begrudgingly accept it, I don't want to in any way have his coworkers think less of him because of his wife being so... not corporate anymore. But good suggestion. And ew, my stomach just isn't a pretty place to visit anymore, post-childbirth. Bleah.