I am a 45 year old female, and I am extensively tattooed. I received my first tattoo at age 19, and at age 25 started work on a Japanese style kimono tattoo. Today, my dream tattoo is nearly complete: my back is completely covered from shoulders to buttocks to upper thighs, my upper arms are covered to just above the elbows, and in front, my breasts, rib cage, abdomen, and upper thighs are TOTALLY covered.
It was my first tattoo - a large flower on my left breast - which first attracted my husband to me. He thought it was very sexy (so did I!), and I loved the attention he gave it. We started dating, and I found that he was a wonderful, loving man, who appreciated me for everything I was about, including (but not limited to) my tattoo. We fell in love, and for his next birthday I had another flower tattooed on the other breast. It was tattooed from a photograph, which I took of a large, beautiful Orchid he had given me on my birthday two months earlier. He loved it, but was amazed and overwhelmed that I would mark my body just for him.
But I really enjoyed doing this for him - and for me. I realized quite clearly that after only two tattoos, I was addicted. I was also starting to discover something deeper: the mysterious power that tattoos had over both of us. For me, it was all powerfully erotic: the thrill of the very act of getting tattooed, of becoming unique, of enhancing what I thought was an already attractive body, and knowing that my body would bear this adornment forever, and finally, my tremendous excitement in revealing each new permanent decoration to him for the first time. They brought him tremendous pleasure, and it excited me further to know that I was bringing him these pleasures with my unique customized body.
We married in the following year. Two weeks before the wedding I had a peach tattooed on the inside of my upper thigh, with our initials and wedding date inauspiciously worked into the decorative tendrils surrounding it. We were so busy before the wedding, that we didn't spend any intimate time together, it was a wedding night surprise for him. I revealed it to him in a very dramatic and calculated way, and he of course, loved it. Again he was stunned that I would do this for him. Right then I told him that every year on his birthday I would add another tattoo to my body for him. On our honeymoon he joked that I'd better make a plan, because he expected us to be married for a long time, and in fifty years I would run out of space for tattoos!
True to my promise, the next two birthdays saw me add two more tattoos: first, a large Japanese-style peony on my right buttock, and the second was an exotic bird on my left shoulder blade, with its tail feathers draping gracefully over my shoulder to my collarbone. For professional and public "image" reasons, I generally dressed quite conservatively. However, on occasion - perhaps we were at a nice restaurant - I would wear as sweater over a backless dress. During dessert, I might ask him to help me remove the sweater, and position myself so that when he removed it, the bird on my shoulder would be revealed to him. And although I generally don't like to flaunt my tattoos in public, occasionally I enjoy the attention that they attract in semi-private settings such as these.
The following year, I began to take the planning of my future tattooing seriously. On his birthday I revealed a large flower covering much of my upper right arm. This was a big step for me - venturing onto my arm was sort of a point of no return. Once I had started on my arms, I was in public territory, and would have to deal with the consequences of having prominent tattoos. But I had decided that I wanted to make that leap, and an even bigger one: I also gave him a drawing showing my body, completely tattooed from shoulders to upper thighs, front and back, in the traditional Japanese style. I told him that this is how I planned avoid running out of space for tattoos for the next 50 years!
So for the last 24 years or so, with interruptions for the birth of two children, I have gradually added to this tattoo, until this year on his birthday, it will be done. Although my arms from elbow down, and legs from upper thighs down are untattooed, the remainder of my skin is densely and thoroughly covered. Almost no untattooed skin remains within the field of the tattoo - even my nipples and genital areas have been tattooed! I am so proud and excited when I see myself in the mirror - proud of my unique beauty and its powerful erotic appeal to both my husband and I, proud of having the perseverance to follow a dream, and to make my body into a work of art, to be enjoyed only by the two of us. I am grateful that my husband is still as thrilled by my tattooed body as he was twenty years ago. And I am honored that my 19 year daughter (who is a straight A university student, I might add) recently invited me to accompany her as she got her first tattoo, in honor of MY birthday. It was a flower on her upper right arm, which matches mine exactly!
What does the future hold for me? Well, my legs and lower arms are currently untouched, so someday after we retire I will likely have my sleeves completed to just above my wrists, and my legs tattooed to just above my knees or maybe as far as my ankles. However, that is a long way away. But my daughter has gotten me interested in piercing, and that could provide years of fun, too! First stop - left nipple!
- Name and e-mail withheld by request.
