The 40-Year-Old Tattoo Virgin

As you know, people often get tattoos to mark significant milestones or turning points in their lives. After several years of waffling, I made up my mind to celebrate my 40th birthday by finally getting a tattoo -- something Celtic or tribal perhaps? Or, what the hell, if all else fails -- a labrys!

But fate intervened. A few months before my 40th birthday, my job was abruptly downsized in government cuts. Without a healthy income, I went into strict survival mode, dramatically cutting back expenses and not spending any unnecessary money until I could find another job. A tattoo became a luxury I could not and would not spend money on.

So my 40th birthday came and went and I remained a tattoo virgin. Although I found another job in my field within a fairly short time, I never did get my once-planned tattoo because, as they say, "the moment had passed." And I've never had a serious hankering for a tat since.

Thus, ladies and gentlemen, I remain the non-ink-stained wretch you see here before you today.

To Tattoo or Not to Tattoo? That is the Question.

Of course, not every lesbian is a fan of tats. For example, it was a point of pride with my girlfriend at the time, Big Bad Butch, that she did not have any tattoos. She ran with the bikers when she was young so it actually was quite a miracle that she remained uninked.

However, now that I was a card-carrying member of the Lesbian Nation, I started to seriously think about getting a tattoo.

But I could never really decide on a design that I felt was sufficiently unique. I didn't want to get anything that I would eventually regret, outgrow or even just get bored with in the future.

What to do? What to do?

I became an indecisive female Hamlet.

[Tomorrow's post: will Hamlet get off the pot?]

Lesbians ♥ Tattoos

I never saw a woman with a tattoo until I started hanging out in Winnipeg's gay bars in the mid-1980s. Occasionally, old-school 1950s butches would show up with tattooed forearms like the men of their generation had. Younger dykes would have feminist tats on their biceps or shoulders -- woman power symbols (with or without fists), Amazon labryses (double-headed axes), stuff like that.

Lesbians led the way in popularizing tattoos for women. Long before it became a mainstream fashion, lesbians loved tats for their edgy, defiant, gender-bending vibe. When I first came out, getting a matching tattoo with your lover was a popular way to demonstrate "family ties" before our relationships had any legal status. Barbed wire and Celtic knotwork armbands circling a bicep were favourite lesbian choices at that time too. Eventually tribal tattoos were all the rage. And so on and so on.

[Tomorrow's post: will our heroine get a tattoo?]

It's a Cat's World (Part 2)

It's a Cat's World (Part 1)

It's Hockey Night in Winnipeg!

Earlier this week, the resurrected Winnipeg Jets played their first home game in 15 years at the new MTS Centre in downtown Winnipeg. The Jets triumphed in the preseason exhibition game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Ecstatic Winnipeg fans were in a frenzy. Here's the scene as described by sports writer Roy MacGregor of The Globe and Mail:

"In 2011," the MTS Centre scoreboard read, "The NHL Returned to the Greatest Fans in the World."

And it certainly seemed so. They screamed throughout the warm-up and sang O Canada as if the players on the ice had just won Olympic gold.

And then they got really loud. A mere 37 seconds into . . . [the] game, Byfuglian levelled Columbus's Cody Bass with a single punch -- Bass likely unaware of Byfuglian's mood, given that the big Winnipeg defenceman had been formally charged only hours earlier by Minnesota police for allegedly being under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol while operating his boat in late August.

Once the fighting penalties had been served, it was Byfuglian setting up Paul Postma for a point shot that became the reborn Jets first goal . . . of the new era.

*sigh* Oh yeah, baby, now that's sweet hockey. Very sweet indeed.

Welcome home, boys! All is right with the world again.

[Photo by Phil Hossack of the Winnipeg Free Press]

Autumn Equinox: Hail Kukulkan!

Every spring and autumn equinox, the plumed serpent of light named Kukulkan makes an appearance at Chichen Itza, the ancient Mayan site in Mexico. For about half an hour, sunlight strikes the staircase bannister of El Castillo pyramid in such a way as to create an undulating body for the snake deity whose carved head is found at the base of the stairs. Kukulkan appears only twice a year, when day and night, light and dark, are equal and in balance.

My Rare One and I visited Chichen Itza in 2004 (but not on an equinox, alas). I climbed El Castillo's sacred staircase, a difficult task because of its extremely steep and shallow steps. I descended the stairs in the traditional manner -- sitting and bumming my way down each step! It's the safest method because it is so very easy to trip and fall all the way down if you walk upright. That's why an ambulance was tucked away in a nearby grove of trees, as we later noticed. In fact, I read recently that tourists are now no longer allowed to climb the pyramid, precisely because an elderly lady did have a fatal fall on the staircase.