Tattoes and Body Jewellery

essays about tattoo and body piercing

Thank you so much for having us! We brought you a cat

As Flight Attendants, Shasy and I flew together so much and were so close, we became a great complimentary team.  We talked for hours and hours and hours.  Finally, we had shared so many personal sagas and experiences from our pasts with one another, we had to devise a system to prevent each of us from repeating the same stories to one another.  If one of us started in on a topic which had already been covered thoroughly and put to bed, but the other one didn’t remember it, we simply said “Repeat,” and the other person would say “Oh, sorry,” and move on to another subject.

Shasy and I also spent a lot of our off time together.  There was an avant garde area of Dallas (Texas-U.S.) called Deep Ellum that had a lot of great music and interesting places to visit.  The name “Deep Ellum” is actually a corruption of ”Deep Elm Street.”  Elm Street is one of the roadways connecting this artsy neighborhood to downtown Dallas.  One night, Shasy and I went to Deep Ellum on a double date.  First, we went to a cocktail party, which a friend of ours was hosting at her house in Deep Ellum.  As both couples exited the car and started walking toward the party home, it dawned on us that we hadn’t brought so much as a water cracker (water biscuit for my friends in the U.K.) as a token of gratitude for our hostess.  We all stood in the middle of the street debating whether our faux pas rose to the level of requiring us to get back in the car and go fetch a bottle of wine.   

Shasy’s date, Jeff, noticed a cat slinking by and reaching down to pick up the kitty said “Oh, perfect, we’ll take her a cat.”     

It was a darling cat, and I’m sure we would have been the hit of the party.   

‘Hi, how are you?  Thank you so much for having us!  We brought you a cat…Oh, no, it’s our pleasure.’   

But we feared we might be committing a crime, so we drove to the nearest liquor store and bought a nice Cabernet instead.  The party had a very weird vibe about it.  You just never know with cocktail parties how things are going to play out.  You simply can’t predict how all the different personalities will mix, what variety of moods people will be in, or who might offend whom.  Cocktail parties are definitely a risky business, and you really take your life in your hands with a dinner party.  Because if things go south at a dinner party, and, for example, someone takes too many servings of the Prince Orloff entree-and the remaining guests are left with only crunbs-you’re stuck with the putzes all night long.   

I don’t remember the topic of dispute this night, but we hadn’t been there 45 minutes when I overheard another man at the party asking Shasy’s date if he wanted to “take this outside,” while he chewed delicately on a crab puff.   

‘How did things go so wrong so quickly?’   

“Thanks for having us, you’re home’s lovely.”     

The four of us made a rapid egress and walked down the street to a tattoo and body piercing shop.  The proprietors had a bulletin board on the wall with samples of their work displayed.  There were pictures of every imaginable body part-female and male-being pierced and tattooed.  Shasy was with her boyfriend of a couple of years at the time, but my date was a guy I had only been out with once or twice.  So, we stood there looking at pierced, colorful penises, vulva, and nipples.  Perfectly comfortable activity for a second or third date.  As we turned to walk out of the shop, this lady came up to us and pointed to one of the pictures on the bulletin board of a woman with an earring attached to her ‘Lily of the Valley.’  Although to be precise, I presume the piece of jewelry ceases being an ‘earring’ when it is worn in this location.  I won’t venture a guess as to its proper nomenclature.  She explained helpfully that the person in the picture was her.  “Really?”  We all stood there, nonplussed.  She persisted “You don’t believe me, look.”  She hastily began pulling off her overalls.   

‘NO!  We believe you, please…’   

I couldn’t bear it, and turned around, but my three degenerate companions for the evening eagerly took it all in.  The immodest and loquacious customer dropped trou and took the three of them on a tour of her pelvic region.  All I heard was Shasy confirming “Yup, it’s you all right.”   

Later, I asked Shasy “How could you stand there and look? ICK.”   

Shasy replied casually “Well, I didn’t know she was going to show us her jine.”   

Lori Culpepper Dinsmore

About the Author

There is a psychiatric/psychological diagnosis called “Folie a Plusieurs,” which is a French phrase literally meaning “Madness has Several.”  This disorder was first discovered by French Psychiatrists, thus the French name.  The illness may occur when people are so enmeshed with each other they actually adopt the psychosis or psychoses of their companions.

The imagery which the phrase~Madness has Several~evokes, for me, is simply enchanting.

This is my portal into my own folie and joy.  I am a Stay Home, HomeSchooling Mother to a ten year old Human Boy, a four year old Bloodhound Boy, and a six year old retired racing Greyhound Boy.  My Husband (also a Boy), Jonathan, and I have been married nearly 15 years.  They are my treasures.

Here is my lens for the epoch we share-past and present.  These are my hopes, ruminations, and of course, delirious thoughts…but what always burns most vividly is the beautiful laughter.

Hold on tight to la folie avec moi mon pretties.

Lori Culpepper Dinsmore

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