Tattoos - Inks - Tats

I do love the blogging world because I learn so much.  Never in a million years did I think I'd ever do a blog post on tattoos. This is what keeps life interesting.

I've noticed the world has been taken over by tattoos.  I admit when I see one I think "you're going to be sorry you did that." But today I learned, maybe not.  No doubt inks used in today tattoos are far superior to ones used fifty years ago.

This website has very few words but lots of very interesting pictures if you're interested in how tattoos appear on the elderly.

After this I was off and running and found this site with information for women and the title "Tattoos For Older Women - A Surprising New Trend." Wow, who would have thought it?  Apparently a tattoo can represent your secret persona, if you happen to have one of those. It can make a personal statement to the world about your values, your independence and beliefs. It's a way for you to express your unique free spirit.

I got off on this subject by reading the post "Ink Me," on the Aging Gracefully My Ass blog.  She is an elder woman that the idea of getting a tattoo appeals to, something she's want to do for years.

I began my experience with tattoos as a very young child when summer came and an uncle appeared in a short sleeve shirt with Navy tattoos from his shoulders to his wrists on both arms.  He was an old Navy man from World War I.  My eyes got as big as saucers.

In one of my lives I was a volunteer guardian and served as a court appointed guardian, usually for elderly persons. I received an elderly woman who'd been abandoned on one of the city hospitals by her family.  She was near death. I went to the care center, pulled the sheet back to examine the woman and found a tattoo of a banner with ivy entwined around it and a name inside the banner. The location surprised me, on the inside of her upper leg, as close to her vagina as it could get.  Wow, could that be a clue to the life this woman had lived that perhaps contributed to her being abandoned by her family?  I'll never know. She had lost so much weight and the ink was blurred making the name unreadable.  She died a few days later.

My third memorable experience with a tattoo has been in the last few years.  We were riding the MAX  train into downtown Portland.  A very nice looking clean cut young man was sitting across from us.  He looked like a young professional of some kind. All was well until he raised his arm and on the underside was a tattoo of a gun and drops of blood that reached from his wrist to his elbow. On Monday morning, wearing a long sleeved shirt, no one would be the wiser.

Personally the idea of a tattoo does not appeal to me but I will now be much less judgmental of elders I meet with tattoos.
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Just read about a tattoo that's too funny not to share.  A man got a tattoo of the EKG reading of his wife's heartbeat.

Have to say I won't be doing that one.  Bob has finally gotten a pacemaker. I have no desire to look at his EKG results anymore.  Been there, done that, and bought the tee-shirt on that subject.