Meet Ötzi. 
Ötzi is a 5,300-year-old
Iceman who’s mummified
remains were discovered
in the mountains around the Italian-Austrian border in 1991. Ötzi had, and still has, 61 tattoos. His tattoos are the oldest tattoos on record...to date.

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Ancient Egyptian women were also fond of tattoos and it’s believed, the way in which some of the designs are strategically placed, the women of Egypt may have been using tattoos as a sort of amulet - a means of protection during pregnancy and birth.

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Used to exhibit religious faith, relieve pain, indicate class and status, protect from evil, declare love, and even as a form of punishment, tattooing dates back to ancient times. According to the Pew Research Center, 32% of Americans have at least one tattoo and 69% of those people say they got one to “honor or remember someone or something.” 

 

It’s interesting that an ink marking on one’s person instantly separates humans into two camps – you either do or you don’t. No judgement or any particular additional insight into either camp here, just noting it is one
of those obvious dividing factors.

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Growing up, I was taught to believe only “bad” people got tattoos – you know, bikers, loose women, salty sailors, felons, etc. And if you were to by chance encounter someone with a tattoo on their face or neck – call the police immediately!  Despite my mother’s warnings (or maybe in spite of) I’ve always been a fan of artistic bodily ink expressions well-placed. I am not above my tattoo prejudices, though, since as with all art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

For example, I really tried not to laugh at a friend’s 1980s faded, pastel unicorn emblazoned across his otherwise tanned, broad, 56-year-old shoulder.  But in the end, I couldn’t help it. WTH? In contrast, another friend got her name in typewriter font tattooed above her knuckles in pink. Now that, ROCKS!  Yet another friend has documented almost her entire life  over a considerable amount of her body in gorgeous technicolor. Amazing.

 

Getting a tattoo is obviously not everyone’s cuppa, and that it just as it should be. I do think it’s hard, though, once you do get one, to keep it at that. Once you break the seal, it seems there is some magnetic force that drives you to another….and another.  Might have something to do with the pain and/or the rite of passage.  Yes, I think it is a primal force – for better or worse.
It just is.

 

Currently, I have 12 , all black ink, tattoos.  I believe I’ve got one more in me to make it the perfect 13 - a fitting way to ring in my 65th year come 2027. 

Then, I’m pretty sure that’s it.  I think. Maybe.