Tattoo Me

As I alluded to several weeks ago, I got a new tattoo. I waited until it was almost fully healed before posting a picture, since no one likes scabby tattoos, except perhaps Purdue students who smell and/or eat scabs for $30.

Anyway, this was my Christmas present from Jessie in 2006. I had simply failed to cash in on it until now. As you may or may not know, I have two other tattoos, both of which I got when I was a freshman at IU.

I’ll never forget what my mom said to me when I got my first tattoo. It was back in September 1996, approximately seven days after I arrived in B-town to being my collegiate studies, and I got the lizard from the inside sleeve of The Doors’ Waiting for the Sun album on my upper back. When I told my mom, she said, “What if you want to model again?!” A lot of people don’t know that I was once a very successful model at the Sakowitz Department store at FM 1960 and Champion Forest Drive in Houston. I modeled some of their male fashions in in-store runway shows. This, of course, was when I was THREE. I left the scene in early ‘81 because there was too much pressure and everything was getting very druggy. Flintstones vitamins were everywhere. Soon enough it became more about getting stoned, eating copious amounts of Cookie Crisp, and bagging chicks than giving my all on the catwalk, so I gave it up, with nothing to show for it but a surprisingly high B-12 tolerance, some saddle shoes, and a couple paternity suits. Nonetheless, 15 years later (and even though all of my modeling was fully clothed), my mom assumed that modeling was still somehow a possibility for me, and backless shirt modeling at that.

But I digress. After thinking about my latest tattoo for nearly a year, I had a few possibilities, but ultimately decided on this:Yes, that is the IU seal, which shouldn’t be confused with Mr. Flappy, the IU Seal.