triticale - the wheat / rye guy

A Select Company

Owen is surveying his readership in reaction to national surveys which suggest that 24 percent of Americans between 18 and 50 are tattooed. I could perhaps have claimed 3+ rather than 2 in Owen's survey. When I had Mr Bluebird on my shoulder touched up 15 years ago (when the ink was 18 years old) I had a heart added either side of the wee wifey's name.

My wee wifey and I got our first tatts, at her suggestion, instead of engagement rings. Matching flowers, over our hearts. By Cliff Raven no less. Having run out of earlobe to pierce, she has gone back to collecting tattoos, with a bouquet around one ankle and a Crown of Glory (she drew the flash) on one shoulder. She is now working on the art for a butterfly garland for her other arm.

Altho the article he links speaks of tattooing exploding in popularity in the last few years, we really weren't out on the radical edge of young folk on the North side of Chicago. While we were getting our flowers done there was a sweet young thing in the Chicago Tattooing Company exploring the possibility of getting a small, inconspicuous crescent moon near her navel. She was really being daring.

I didn't think I was near the radical edge when I got my ear pierced 35 years ago. Guys in my high school had been getting an earlobe (always the left one) as early as 1967, as a mark of gang affiliation. Even before that, there had been Mr. Clean and Captain Blood. Nowadays a single pierce is almost square, but for me it is still the sign of a swashbuckler.