•  An all-female tattoo convention, "Marked for Life," annually celebrates women who tattoo and are tattooed. There are mother and daughter teams, as well as women who are famous for specific types of tattoos. Juli Moon has been tattooing for over 20 years, and she says some of her clients simply prefer a woman's touch. "The perception was that because I am a woman, I'm not going to tattoo so harshly," she says.

• In the late 1800's, some women were tattooed without knowing it. Normally tattooing was associated with deviants, sinners, and freaks. When some entrepreneurs got into the business of helping women reach beauty ideals, they realized that they could tattoo colors (like eye shadow) on women's bodies and charge them for it. But to attract more customers, they never used the word "tattoo" in their ads, instead calling it a "mechanical procedure." Eventually word got around that these women had in fact been tattooed, and they weren't happy about it.

• In ancient Tonga, women were tattooed on the inside of their hands and fingers before it was officially outlawed in 1838.

• An Islamic scripture: "The messenger of Allah cursed women who tattooed, and those who got themselves tattooed, those who engaged in sharpening the teeth (as a mark of beauty) and those who had their teeth sharpened."

• Winston Churchill's mother had a tattoo of a serpent on her wrist.

• 19th century sideshow attractions created fantastic abduction tales in which they claimed to have been forcibly tattooed.

• "I have three completely different tattoos on my body, a tree of life, a phoenix, and the phases of the moon. Each one is unique, but more than that, they represent milestones in my life. They are a reminder of what has made me strong, self-determined, and engaging. They are beautiful symbols of my growth as a person. I don't need society to tell me I count anymore- I know I do." - Gina Harmon

• "It takes a bit of sass or outright boldness to wear a tattoo or to modify one. s body. I am comfortable with that assessment of myself." - Jessica Nasca

• "One of the women I interviewed for my project skipped school when she was 15 years old to get her first tattoo... Some of her tattoos have spiritual, political, and personal resonance with her. She and her sister have matching tattoos across the smalls of their backs that represent sisterhood. She also has a tattoo on the inside of each arm, a few inches up from her wrist. She said that a lot of people ask her how she expects to get a job with those visible tattoos, and she responds that she would never work at a place that wouldn. t hire her because she had tattoos." - Amy Garbark.

• The word tatau (tattoo) in Samoan means appropriate, balanced and fitting. The word for a female tattoo is malu, which means to be protected and sheltered. They always put a diamond shaped design on the back of the knee. The taupou (village maiden) plays an important ceremonial role in the community, and is always tattooed from her knee to the top of her leg and sometimes on her hands.

• "Tattoos, wrinkles and scars are external marks of our life experience. The feelings which accompany them vary from a sense of pride to a feeling of aversion. Transformation through tattooing over a scar can have a powerful effect." - Madame Chinchilla ? "Getting my tattoo was the culmination of a three year dance with Breast Cancer. The tattoo changed my mastectomy scar into my shield." - Pam Huntley

"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got." - Janis Joplin

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