Mother of Dragons - My Birthday Tattoo

Back in the dark ages, when message boards and forums roamed the internet in wild herds, before twitter, before Facebook, when FriendsReunited was still a happening and trendy hangout(ie about 10 years ago) I started blogging. And one of the first things I talked about was  my tattoo.

Portsmouth Tattoo Parlour - Photo used with kind permission SilverTiger

I first thought about tattoos when I was about 8 and my granddad took me to Portsmouth, and the docks, we saw tattooed sailors and a tattoo parlour that stated "Over18s only" and "We do not tattoo Ladies" the first made it sound impossible grown up, but the second annoyed me, if I wanted a tattoo, I reasoned, I should have one, even if I was a girl, my grandfather would chuckle and agree and we would stand for what felt like hours staring at the posters of flash art in the blacked out windows.

In my teens I thought about getting a tattoo again, I wasn't sure what of, and in those long distant days (the 1980s) hardly anyone had a tattoo, hard to believe for the youth of today, where the bare skinned are the minority, the cool kids that are displaying their personality by NOT being inked, but that's how it was, and among the tattooed it was 'rough' men and 'trampy' girls only, that sported colours on their bodies. I was a 'good girl' not the sort that got a tattoo, and the sort of girl that thought long and hard about permanent, no going back, style choices. For years I thought about ink, at 16 when I hung around with bikers I thought about lots of traditional styles, hearts, tigers scratching bloody lines into flesh, phrases like 'Live fast, die young', or dragons...I'd always loved dragons.

At 19 I was still thinking, my then boyfriend suggested I think carefully as there was no going back. and so I merely thought about it ... for another 20 years.

When I thought about what I would do for my 40th birthday it suddenly seemed a good idea to get that tattoo,I wasn't getting any younger and I still wanted it! I allowed a message board to choose from three designs that I had picked and loved, all dragons, one traditional coloured Chinese style, one fine black  and realistic like an ink drawing in a book, one a stylised three coloured wyvern. The votes were in, I carried a print of the tattoo in my pocket for a week, to check I didn't start to hate it, I booked a tattoo appointment and finally at the grand age of 40 I took my then 5 year old, and got my tattoo. It felt like the moment of a lifetime. (Loved taking my 5 year old DD along too...though it did mean I couldn't swear at the pain, she thought it was all great!)

Copyright: yod67 / 123RF Stock Photo

This month I will be 50 and I'm thinking of getting a second tattoo (Mr TM will be displeased as he doesn't like tattoos) but what to get? I have thought of a pale brown scorpion on my wrist, so pale as to resemble a birthmark, or another dragon, or a tiny coloured koi leaping ...this time though, I think I'll make the decision myself.

Edited 2023 to add an image of the dragon (wyvern) tattoo