Yes Lee,
Tattoo art is indeed another of the kinks that Melinda and I have been drawn to over the years. We each began collecting our "art" before we met each other, but have inscribed pieces which have at least some elements of our similar thoughts, principally expressions of some of our inner spirituality, "on the outside" so to speak.
I began getting inked pretty late, at about 36 yo; M would have been about 22 when she got her first piece. We really began to get into it when we started our nearly annual trek to the Richmond Virginia Tattoo Fest in '94. My guess is that we've got something like about $7000 to $9000 worth of 'art' between us, but it's hard to get a real handle on it as we've gotten some significant discounts from out regular artist in the last six years or so.
And thank you Ann,
> "I've seen some amazing work on other folks...M comes to mind. She's
> got some gorgeous work."
Yeah, the Glamour-Fairy girl backpiece that Patty did on her in '05 I think is pretty remarkable. Enuf' so that toward the end of the evening (8 hours work all done in one single day), Lyle Tuttle came by and remarked, "very nice". Perhaps I can get an image of it to upload here?
The 'skin art' community is just as close in its own way and just as warm as our own tickle community, and quite frequently as misunderstood. I don't get too overawed or groupie like by stars, but when our young hotel roomie asked if her 'date' could come up for a beer, she said, "y'know Jack."
I inquired, "Jack who?"
She said, matter-of-factly, "Jack Rudy."
'
....soo... It's so much part of what we're about, that the main reason we missed NEST this May was that we took M's son and his fiance to their first tattoo fest in Reading, PA. We'd just given him about $1,000 worth of tattoo equipment and supplies to start his own real time art work, as he'd exhibited to us what we thought were significant talents in that art form using some borrowed equipment.
And Jean, this career federal government employee, and barefoot hippie-girl loving child of the sixties coulnd't be any more of a non-violent peace-nik (smile), despite the 'ink'.
