This made me chuckle, so thanks for that. I started getting tattooed at age 47 and nearly ten years later, I've got 7. I intend to keep going - they are addictive. I don't have a penis, so no tattoo there, and I definitely think that people shouldn't get tattoos spontaneously when they are drunk. All of mine have required not just an appointment, but a pre-appointement consultation to speak to the artist and get on the same page about what we were going to do. They also used a stencil, so no surprises about what it was going to look like in the end. This is always a good practice.
I did just do a giant stingray on my back, and so in a few years, I'll look like Moana's grandmother, but if it was good enough for her, it's good enough for me. Each one of my 7 has personal significance to me and is one of the ways that I have reclaimed my body from a culture that continually tells me that as a woman, it doesn't belong to me. That's my reasoning. I don't know what penis tattoo guys was!
"Even though only one of my tattoos is visible when I’m wearing street clothes, I still feel like getting tattoos has helped me to feel more deeply in touch with my body as something that belongs to me alone. It’s been a part of the healing process from a lifetime of being touched, groped, and commented upon by other people without my consent."
