At the age of 85, I got my first tattoo!! I first thought of it when I was in the Peace Corps in 2017, at the age of 80 - and chickened out!! Well, finally decided to go for it: 4 hearts, 1 for each of my children; located on my upper arm so I can look at it every morning and smile. NOW - planning on 6 smaller hearts to be right under the bigger ones, one for each of my grandchilrdern.
Jun 14, 2022·edited Jun 14, 2022Liked by Sari Botton
Well, Sari, you know me and why at 52 I got my first and probably last tattoo, but not everyone else here does — so, I was going to do a classic heart with the initials of my recently deceased partner, and that turned, last minute, into a heart with the words he used to love asking me to write in Sharpie on his t-shirts: AS IS.
I loved the guy but the idea of having his initials on my body forever gave me pause. “As is” worked as both a tribute to him and as a declaration of intent for me. :)
I got my first (and last) tattoo at age 73, last summer. My oldest son and daughter and I got them together, in celebration of my youngest son, Colin. Colin passed June 10, 2019 at the age of 43 and we all miss his light so very much. On my inner left wrist I got a small symbol of Taurus (his sign) and below that 2 wavy lines to represent Aquarius (my sign) and can also mean synchronicity.
I got my latest tattoo (of 3) at age 54 to celebrate my breast cancer survival. It's a cherry blossom branch across my mastectomy scar, custom designed and executed by Gen Pistol of Rosendale.
Oh my god. I love the essay and personally relate to almost every word. First tattoo at 49: the Hebrew word “Hineni” (Here I am). I’m 52 now and have six: a tiny hamsa with a heart in its palm, an evil eye, a goddess based on Nike/“Victory” but holding a pen instead of a wreath (I call her my writing goddess), a double snake, and the newest, a branch of magnolia blossoms on my right collarbone. I’m definitely addicted. My tattoos are a form of self-recognition and repair.
I am IN LOVE with this topic and “bookmarked” a note to get your book Friday - I’m really looking forward to reading it!
I got my first tattoo at 17. My latest a year ago at 51. I wrote my first college paper on tattooing! At 45 I had a significant back piece designed taking up all the remaining open space there : ) It took 6 months from start to finish. I have a lotus to remind me of my divorce. Whiteface Mountain to remind me of my roots. A tattoo of a buxom fairy (were I to be a fairy, I want curves) who is holding rosemary to remember my mom and sits lightly on a lily - my daughter’s middle name. At 18, my daughter and both got female cardinal tattoos to honor our female ancestors and connection to each other. We selected different styles and placement to honor ourselves and the next year at 51, I got a male cardinal. I have a few more fun ones but oh I love each so much! I love thinking about the conversations we have around tattooing. Thanks for the invite!
Love this piece and this topic! I got my first and only tattoo at age 40 in Haight-Ashbury (after trying and failing to getting one the summer of '94). But I just learned that some women get tattoos over their C-section scars and am now planning a botanical design to transform a part of my body I can't even look at into an image of beauty and meaning.
So I got my first tattoo in celebration of my divorce, which happened a week before my 20th anniversary. It felt so empowering and I could not be more happy with it. Then I got my second for my 50th birthday, which happened during COVID so it was the only way I could really celebrate this monumental milestone. I'm fascinated by how many women I know are getting them late in life!
I got my first tattoo three years ago at 67, matching mother-daughter tattoos for Mother’s Day. It’s our clan motto, Hold Fast, and I plan to add thistles soon as it needs some more color.
Jun 14, 2022·edited Jun 14, 2022Liked by Sari Botton
Planning: redwing blackbirds balancing on reeds—the first sign of Spring where I live. The colors and design based on a former student’s painting. I live with someone who has several tattoos—which I love studying. Great tattoos, Sari!
First tattoo at 18 and my most recent at 54! In between I've gotten 20 or so. For most recent one (a portrait of Stevie Nicks), I had it placed on my right thigh. My first leg tattoo. I always thought my legs too fat and unshapely to have ink on them but I've no more space on arms and I can't tolerate anymore on my back. So I said fuck it. And I love it! And I'm ordering your book today!!!
Funny, the email just before yours was my daily newsletter from LitHub, so I just read your tattoos story.
Maybe ten years ago, I was riding the IRT (that alone proves how old I am) late one afternoon after teaching in Manhattan back to Crown Heights, where I lived. Across from me were three Black male teenagers in school jackets and ties, obviously also coming back to school. There was a chubby one and a very skinny one on either side of their friend, and they were trying to convince him to get a tattoo for his chest because, as they said, "You have a good chest."
The boy in the middle told them he wouldn't because "one day I will be in my 50s like my grandfather and everything will be saggy and the tattoo will be saggy, too, and I'll look stupid."
At the time I thought it was remarkable thatt a kid of maybe 16 would think that far ahead. These kids seemed quite bright as they started talking about homework, but it seemed like this kid, who could project himself so far into the future and think about the consequences of aging even before he was an adult, was truly remarkable.
And he was right: the more chest development a guy has when he is young, the more he will sag later.
I’m 70 and contemplating my 1st tattoo. “Hygge” it’s Danish for enjoying the simple pleasures in life. Probably on my left arm just above my thumb .. . Small
I'm loving these. I have old ink, dating back to age 18 (I'm a grownup!) and 33 (I'm leaving my shitty marriage!). But I have a big regret. For years I had my 45th birthday tattoo planned—one of those cool round 45 rpm record inserts, on my shoulder Superman-style... and then didn't. I'm not even sure why not. My boyfriend at the time (now my husband) isn't that into ink but he wouldn't have objected, and though I was worried about my employability at the time it's not like I was thinking about getting spiderwebs tattooed on my face. I think I just wasn't feeling super confident at the time, and all the cool ideas in the world won't make for a cool tattoo if you're not feeling it, right?
I'd do it now, but that particular one feels like it belongs to my 45-year-old self. So I have a year to think of something for 60.
At the age of 85, I got my first tattoo!! I first thought of it when I was in the Peace Corps in 2017, at the age of 80 - and chickened out!! Well, finally decided to go for it: 4 hearts, 1 for each of my children; located on my upper arm so I can look at it every morning and smile. NOW - planning on 6 smaller hearts to be right under the bigger ones, one for each of my grandchilrdern.
veta
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tattoo-elaine-soloway_n_5b61cf21e4b0de86f49d1e3f
Why I Got a Tattoo Instead of a Facelift for My 80th Birthday, by Elaine Soloway on Huffpost. (I'm now 83-1/2)
Well, Sari, you know me and why at 52 I got my first and probably last tattoo, but not everyone else here does — so, I was going to do a classic heart with the initials of my recently deceased partner, and that turned, last minute, into a heart with the words he used to love asking me to write in Sharpie on his t-shirts: AS IS.
I loved the guy but the idea of having his initials on my body forever gave me pause. “As is” worked as both a tribute to him and as a declaration of intent for me. :)
I got my first (and last) tattoo at age 73, last summer. My oldest son and daughter and I got them together, in celebration of my youngest son, Colin. Colin passed June 10, 2019 at the age of 43 and we all miss his light so very much. On my inner left wrist I got a small symbol of Taurus (his sign) and below that 2 wavy lines to represent Aquarius (my sign) and can also mean synchronicity.
I got my latest tattoo (of 3) at age 54 to celebrate my breast cancer survival. It's a cherry blossom branch across my mastectomy scar, custom designed and executed by Gen Pistol of Rosendale.
Oh my god. I love the essay and personally relate to almost every word. First tattoo at 49: the Hebrew word “Hineni” (Here I am). I’m 52 now and have six: a tiny hamsa with a heart in its palm, an evil eye, a goddess based on Nike/“Victory” but holding a pen instead of a wreath (I call her my writing goddess), a double snake, and the newest, a branch of magnolia blossoms on my right collarbone. I’m definitely addicted. My tattoos are a form of self-recognition and repair.
I am IN LOVE with this topic and “bookmarked” a note to get your book Friday - I’m really looking forward to reading it!
I got my first tattoo at 17. My latest a year ago at 51. I wrote my first college paper on tattooing! At 45 I had a significant back piece designed taking up all the remaining open space there : ) It took 6 months from start to finish. I have a lotus to remind me of my divorce. Whiteface Mountain to remind me of my roots. A tattoo of a buxom fairy (were I to be a fairy, I want curves) who is holding rosemary to remember my mom and sits lightly on a lily - my daughter’s middle name. At 18, my daughter and both got female cardinal tattoos to honor our female ancestors and connection to each other. We selected different styles and placement to honor ourselves and the next year at 51, I got a male cardinal. I have a few more fun ones but oh I love each so much! I love thinking about the conversations we have around tattooing. Thanks for the invite!
Love this piece and this topic! I got my first and only tattoo at age 40 in Haight-Ashbury (after trying and failing to getting one the summer of '94). But I just learned that some women get tattoos over their C-section scars and am now planning a botanical design to transform a part of my body I can't even look at into an image of beauty and meaning.
So I got my first tattoo in celebration of my divorce, which happened a week before my 20th anniversary. It felt so empowering and I could not be more happy with it. Then I got my second for my 50th birthday, which happened during COVID so it was the only way I could really celebrate this monumental milestone. I'm fascinated by how many women I know are getting them late in life!
Permanently Cool: A Tattoo of One's Own by Alice Lowe
http://www.reduxlitjournal.com/2017/08/242-permanently-cool-tattoo-of-ones-own.html
I got my first tattoo three years ago at 67, matching mother-daughter tattoos for Mother’s Day. It’s our clan motto, Hold Fast, and I plan to add thistles soon as it needs some more color.
Planning: redwing blackbirds balancing on reeds—the first sign of Spring where I live. The colors and design based on a former student’s painting. I live with someone who has several tattoos—which I love studying. Great tattoos, Sari!
First tattoo at 18 and my most recent at 54! In between I've gotten 20 or so. For most recent one (a portrait of Stevie Nicks), I had it placed on my right thigh. My first leg tattoo. I always thought my legs too fat and unshapely to have ink on them but I've no more space on arms and I can't tolerate anymore on my back. So I said fuck it. And I love it! And I'm ordering your book today!!!
Funny, the email just before yours was my daily newsletter from LitHub, so I just read your tattoos story.
Maybe ten years ago, I was riding the IRT (that alone proves how old I am) late one afternoon after teaching in Manhattan back to Crown Heights, where I lived. Across from me were three Black male teenagers in school jackets and ties, obviously also coming back to school. There was a chubby one and a very skinny one on either side of their friend, and they were trying to convince him to get a tattoo for his chest because, as they said, "You have a good chest."
The boy in the middle told them he wouldn't because "one day I will be in my 50s like my grandfather and everything will be saggy and the tattoo will be saggy, too, and I'll look stupid."
At the time I thought it was remarkable thatt a kid of maybe 16 would think that far ahead. These kids seemed quite bright as they started talking about homework, but it seemed like this kid, who could project himself so far into the future and think about the consequences of aging even before he was an adult, was truly remarkable.
And he was right: the more chest development a guy has when he is young, the more he will sag later.
I’m 70 and contemplating my 1st tattoo. “Hygge” it’s Danish for enjoying the simple pleasures in life. Probably on my left arm just above my thumb .. . Small
I'm loving these. I have old ink, dating back to age 18 (I'm a grownup!) and 33 (I'm leaving my shitty marriage!). But I have a big regret. For years I had my 45th birthday tattoo planned—one of those cool round 45 rpm record inserts, on my shoulder Superman-style... and then didn't. I'm not even sure why not. My boyfriend at the time (now my husband) isn't that into ink but he wouldn't have objected, and though I was worried about my employability at the time it's not like I was thinking about getting spiderwebs tattooed on my face. I think I just wasn't feeling super confident at the time, and all the cool ideas in the world won't make for a cool tattoo if you're not feeling it, right?
I'd do it now, but that particular one feels like it belongs to my 45-year-old self. So I have a year to think of something for 60.