Tattoo You

Went down to Philadelphia tonight to meet up with the Baron. After latte and conversation at Starbucks, but before we headed to get dinner, we made a tour of tattoo parlors on and off South Street.

Uh uh.

Saw nothing I liked. I'm trying to think of what the person would be like who would get a tattoo of Rosie, the Jetson's robot maid. I mean, those goofy Hotstuff the Little Devil I guess I can sort of understand. But Rosie, the Jetson's robot maid? There were also numerous selections of Chinese characters. Some of them--strength, courage, satori--I could see. But how about the Chinese character for 'nose.'

But mostly I was disappointed by the artists who were loitering about in the parlors I visited. I mean, they looked like their approach to what they were doing was, "this is a better gig than working at Kinko's."

P'raps I'm romanticizing things a bit much (Who? Me???!!), but I want to bond with the person that inks me. That's how it was when I got my first one fifteen years ago.

The Baron opines that when I got that tattoo all those years ago, getting a tattoo was still something that not a lot of people were doing. He said that a lot of the tattoo artists who were respected and who viewed what they were doing as something more than a job have gotten out of Center City, just because they were beseiged every weekend with witless hordes wanting Hotstuff the Little Red Devil tattooed on their calves.

So I don't think I'm going to find what I want in a sketchbook. I'll have to come up with my own design.

What to get, what to get. Boots appeal to me. As does chain. A whip. Another wolf. Hmmm. I'd really like to have extensive work done on one arm. What's known as a 'sleeve.' But I think that I would never be able to settle on something firgurative. So what about something abstract? Hmmm. Maybe I should look through some of the works of the Abstract Expressionists that I love so well.

If anybody has any ideas, do pass them on.

Thanks.

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