I hadn’t seen the article, but thank you for sharing — I read through it, and I think it points to an important problem facing a lot of women. I haven’t really run into it all that much; the only people who have touched mine were friends, so I don’t feel bothered. I did have one guy do it and it felt invasive, and I know this is a problem for other tattooed women, as well. I’m glad there are people talking about this, though, because I imagine that having this experience consistently must be uncomfortable.

Moving out of state is the worst for tattooing, haha. One of my artists moved and I still have to get the tattoo finished, but it’s a specific style and I’m having a hard time figuring out who would be able to do it without messing it up. It’s of cross stitching, so I assume it won’t be fun for whoever has to do it. Maybe I’ll go visit the original artist in Kentucky.

Sometimes I think that images we like can also hold meaning to the individual. I have a random unicorn on my shoulder that I just got because I was old enough to, so it makes me nostalgic for younger days. I wonder if that’s how it is for others — also commemorative, maybe? Or my artist talked to me recently about how he tries to get tattooed by all kinds of artists so that he can have the experience, but he isn’t terribly particular about the content.