What is it about women with empowering, special tattoos that drive me wild?
Whenever I see a woman with a tattoo that seems to embody her strength(s)
or a weakness that's been embraced
I want to know her.
Maybe it's because I'm a little bit of a feminist
and a lesbian
Maybe it's because of Bronwen, my best friend and a dominating gut-using tough girl.
And the greasy-fingered girls I meet at the bike project.

At Big Red's, there is a tattoo that thrills me. It's a woman with meat on her bones and curves, eating a sandwich.  She's sitting on three barrels of toxic waste, and holds a skateboard that says "Rosie" on the bottom.  I imagine that she's a modern "Rosie the Rivetor." There's something about the image that makes me feel 100 times more comfortable with myself.   I went into Big Red's a while back to ask if I could get a copy of the flash, and they told me I could get a very nice copy- On my skin, for 350 dollars.  Yikes! (:  I wouldn't mind the tattoo one bit if I had the money.  The man was really nice, and suggested that I try studying it and drawing it later.  (I did try, but with little success...)  I think it would be wonderful to have her on my back.  Maybe someday I will. 
  
Aside Number 1:   The have-to-be-thin supermodel ideal put up as an example to women everywhere makes me mad.  Extremely mad.  I believe that this image puts womyn down-  It's asking them to be thin and small and fragile and weak, to deny their desires.  It's asking us to fucking come back where we came from!  It's asking us to get back on the shelf, pedestals, and back in the kitchens.  And stop voting, bitching, thinking, declaring, rioting- and most of all, stop loving yourself. . I wonder if the people who perpetuate this "perfection" really like womyn for all they can be.

"Punk rock love is fucking behind the dumpster down the street from the show. Fucking in the shower at the Hotel Carlton. Making out in the recycle bin. Looking at her tattoos while she's asleep. Taking showers together. Playing checkers with cigarette butts. Watching her band play. Dumpstering veggies together and then going back to her place and cooking up a feast. Knowing the same parts of the same songs. Both of you having the same ex-girlfriend." - Aaron Wohl

My sociology teacher has a  tattoo on her hand.  I think it's beautiful.  You can tell she's strong, no doubt about it.  She's also a lesbian- Bonus points! (:
I never felt comfortable with the "Girl Power!" movement of 2 or 3 years ago, brought on by people like the Spice Girls.  Soon, "Girls rule, boys drool" and similar teeny-bop sayings were all over keychains, baby tees and bracelets.  It never made me feel powerful... Most of that was still based on consumerism.
Consume less.

What has made me feel powerful are poems like this:
I Am Woman
by: Shannon Hunt

i am woman, and i am dying.
I am chastised for eating too much and too fast, but when i nearly starve myself to death i am: selfish
looking for attention
trying to look like a supermodel
fighting puberty
mentally disturbed
among other things. it's bad if i'm sick, but worse if i'm fat--where's the happy medium? i am yelled at, patronized, abused for not doing my duty at home, but when i look for other work, i am turned away because i have ovaries or accepted into the company because i have breasts. i try to be smart yet not too smart, thin but not too thin, happy on the outside while i am crying within. i must be strong and feminine, cut my hair short and do the same with my skirts. i am encouraged to exercise compulsively and eat healthily yet men hate big muscles and vegetarians. i am weak as an artist but too forward as a businesswoman or scientist. unwilling to go too fast in a relationship, i am a tease, but accepting a date desperately, i am a slut. i am dressed in pink lace but i am hard as nails. with all these contradictions, why do you think i am:
anorexic
bulimic
depressed
suicidal
reluctant to take ap math
afraid to express my feelings
withdrawn
self-mutiliating
promiscuous
alcoholic?

i'll tell you what i really can be. i can be confident artistic powerful intelligent and beautiful inside. i can be fat thin lesbian straight creative or businesslike, christian jewish buddhist or wiccan, black white hispanic asian native american or indian, a mother teacher physicist author doctor or lawyer. i can cry, laugh, love and hate. i can feel, and i can believe.

i am woman, and i am proud.
 

I like that.
And pictures of big, strong, make-up-less women dancing, grinning. And my angel, Greg, who thinks it's silly for women to shave their armpits or worry about how they smell.  And the Vagina Monologues.  And the poster I saw in a store window of Marilyn Monroe lifting weights.

And tattoos.  Oh, yes- I was supposed to talk about them!  Well it's all interconnected, you see.  Completely interconnected.  It's about women, strength, art, feelings, emotions, our mothers, ink, pain, tradition, and us.  And TV, it. s about TV too.  Some of the strongest women I know don't have tattoos... It's a personal preference, I know.  I don't know if I'll ever get tattooed because I'm cheap and I'm not into permanent commitments, like marriage.  Oh, don't get me going on marriage. (:  Ok, this part of my projects done.

We've got a brand new dance... It's called we've got to overcome. - Sublime

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