A Rat-a-Tattoo!

When I was in high school, a million years ago, back in O'Fallon, Illinois, I'd occasionally shop in the closest big city, St. Louis, with my friend Kathy. Her parents let her borrow their Lincoln? Cadillac?--some kind of huge boat of a car, and we'd drive across the Mississippi River to Famous-Barr or Styx, Baer and Fuller to buy school clothes.  Well, Kathy bought clothes. She had the family credit cards and SAID she had permission to use them. I never doubted it. My father didn't believe in credit cards and he didn't have enough money --or inclination--to let a teenager choose her own wardrobe. Kathy shopped. I watched. Then we had lunch.

Across the Mississippi, on the Missouri side, was a shack, right on the river banks as you come off the bridge, called Trader Bob's Tattoo Shop. 

Kathy and I chatted about getting tattoos: where, what image we'd choose, and why. . .I had read, probably in 16 magazine, that Cher had a tattoo, of a peace symbol or a rose or a heart, on her back or her breast or her buttock--I was never sure, but all of those variations seemed possible because that's where I'd get mine, and what I'd choose. Peace or love or flower power, preferably hidden.

Kathy was more adventurous than I. More daring. I'm so lucky and so thankful that she never threatened to stop at Trader Bob's. I would have gone through with almost any dare in my adolescent desire to be cool or brave or sexy or anything I wasn't. 

I've often wondered if Kathy ever got inked. I haven't. I'm one of those older women who calculates how much that inky picture  on that nubile butt will distort once that skin goes south. Nothing like a wrinkly old peace symbol, right?

But I've seen some lovely body art--and am, frankly, amazed by the number of beautiful Bride of Frankenstein tattoos there are! They're everywhere! If someone can explain it to me, please do. Do the wearers/bearers know who she was? I mean, beyond the iconic makeup? Do they wonder? I SO hope some young women with Bride iconography will come to the show and talk to me about their choice. 

Did their high school shopping buddy, cooler than they were,  dare them to do it at some rundown shack on the banks of the river? Do they have regrets? Or was it a well-considered decision? Are they proud to represent the First Girl Monster? I hope so.

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