Tattoos, Piercings and Broken Windshields.

Friday December 30, 2011. We headed toward D.C. on 95 south. Car packed with technology. Still camera, video camera, iPad and  smart phones. Lots of music to keep us jamming along the way and formal wear neatly packed for our big night out at the Kennedy Center. Husband is driving, weaving through traffic. I'm in the passenger position and noticed  the driver in the next lane over. Or rather I notice a female tatted up with piercings driving a car with a broken windshield. Tatted up, pierced and a broken windshield. Sounds like lyrics to a country music song. It got me to wondering ---- when I was young-er  I didn't see people  displaying tattoos  proudly like peacocks show their feathers. Unless it was a guy who was in the navy then maybe he had an anchor on his arm that was about all I knew about tattoos. But now its a descriptive and very personal part of our culture. And the piercings. Eye brow, nose, lip tongue have replaced the commonly accepted, perhaps now considered boring ear piercings.  And that's just what's displayed NORTH of  the neck.  When you take it south, well  "you do You!"  They call it called Body Art. And it's here to stay.

Not long agoI was browsing through the aisles of Marshall's. Nearby there was a young woman with her little daughter. Yes I am prone to listen to other's conversation.  Call it the "journalist" in me. Mom was explaining to her daughter who was about six how important it is to buy long sleeve tops because you may have to cover up your tattoos in certain environments. So she continued, " think carefully before you get a tattoo because you will have to dress a certain way and buy clothes to cover them up." Of course the little girl asked, "Why Mommy?"  mom replied, "Because sometimes that is the right thing to do."

 Body Art. Think of it as an accessory drawn onto the body. Or  a petite piece of  jewelry of  choice attached to a body part through a punctured hole. Doesn't work for me but Body Art lives everywhere from Mom's shopping at Marshall's to the female headed south on 95 with the tattoos, piercings and the broken windshield.