Margaret Cho has had her midriff tattooed with two snakes. Excellent taste she has. She also says this about tattoos:
I love tattoos because they represent a brief glimpse of person's insides, their passions, their true heart. It is like a riddle, a complex haiku that you may or may not be able to decipher, that you are fortunate to even have the opportunity. Even after the thrill is gone, the tattoo remains, as a reminder of a personal history, a life lived, flawed yet genuine, faded yet viable, and if it is visible to us, in daily life, it modifies the public personae in a way that no other physical alteration does.
I love heavily tattooed women. I imagine their lives are filled with sensuality and excess, madness and generosity, impulsive natures and fights. They look like they have endured much pain and sadness, yet have the ability to transcend all of it by documenting it on the body. Women's bodies are fraught with controversy, because it is believed that our bodies belong to the state. We are not supposed to choose what we can do with them. We don't have complete control over reproduction. Though we can get abortions (right now) we must be in the right place at the right time, and even then we might need the consent of someone else (a man) in order to take care of OURSELVES!!!
A lovely defence of tattoos. I especially like the idea of women taking ownership of their bodies by decorating them as they wish. Too bad that I still don't want tattoos, largely because of this bit Margaret said:
I love tattoos because they represent a brief glimpse of person's insides, their passions, their true heart.
I don't want anyone to see my insides! And in any case my passions and my heart are in a continual flux. But if I did have tattoos I'd want my whole face to be covered with black-and-white zebra stripes.