Dan the man

I’ve had tattoos since I was seventeen. My first one was a skull with a top hat smoking a cigar I had put just under my left shoulder. Tattoos were illegal in CT. So we had to drive to Rhode Island to get it. Sailor Joe’s was the name of the place and Joe was the busiest guy in the business because he was located near the naval shipyard. Back then, the late seventies the only people with tattoos were sailors and felons, that’s what we were told, my dad was a sailor and had four tattoos all related to the navy and American. My second oldest brother was the first of the sons to get a tattoo then my oldest brother was next. He stopped after two my second oldest got dozens of the I got one and after listening to my mother degrade me I stopped for a few years and then got four more. Then life got busy, a wife, a house, kids, responsibilities sidelined my tattoos until my fifties. I now have about seventy five percent of my body covered with beautiful tattoos from one guy I found in Buffalo NY. A tiger and dragon covers my entire back, koi fish on each pec on my chest, bald eagle carrying a snake with his claws on my left arm Neptune in his watery realm on my right arm, a geisha girl on my right side from my armpit to my knee, a peacock on my left side from my armpit to my knee, our family coat of arms on my left thigh, a ninja skull with swords and throwing stars on my right thigh, a mid evil gladiator on my right calf side. That about “covers” my tattoos. I enjoy them and love where they have evolved in today’s society, other than neck tattoos I don’t understand stand that one, but not my neck so who cares.