The Tattoo Chronicles: An Angel on My Shoulder

I have a new Facebook friend. I like making new friends, on and off Facebook. If someone friend lists me and we have mutuals, I will usually approve the request. Sometimes I read a profile that makes someone sound interesting and I friend request them. It's all in good fun (until someone starts sending untoward emails, at which point I either respond in kind - if they are hot - deface them).

Anyway.

I have a new Facebook friend. His name is Greg. We were getting to know one another and he asked me about my tattoo that he could see in my photo. I wrote back a LOL because I have so many tattoos and so many photos; depending on which photo he was looking at, the tattoo could have been any piece of body art that I have.

"The one on your shoulder."

I never really cared for tattoos. One day, a few years ago, I was watching the tv show FAMILY LAW ( I think that is what it was called - Kathleen Quinlan and Julie Warner, Christian de la Fuente and, eventually, Dixie Carter and Tony Danza ). Mr Danza, who I have always liked, was playing basketball in nought but a pair of shorts (sneakers, natch). The man was well into his fifties and looked FANTASTICO. I thought I wanna look like that. Then I saw: he had a sexy ass tattoo - was it on his shoulderblade? I think so. On his back, on his shoulder: I think that was it.

I always wanted to be sexy.

I decided I wanted a tattoo.

Every person who heard this had advice for me. Every SINGLE person who had a tattoo had advice for me .. lots of it. Raven Snook said 'you will become addicted and want more than one' (her prophecy came true). David Campbell said 'dude, make sure it is personal. don't just get something everyone else is gonna get, too'. Susan Egan said 'think about it for a year and if you still want one, then do it.'

I followed all this advice.After thinking about it for two years, I got my first tattoo.After coming up with a concept during that time, after asking three different artists to render it, I drew my tattoo myself.

The tattoo on my right shoulder is an angel sitting on the head of a pin.

St Thomas Aquinas pondered the question "How many angels can you fit on the head of a pin?" The pundits spent much time debating the question. It became one of the great philosophical debates of history. I love that. I love that these scholars wasted so much of their valuable time arguing a question that cannot possibly be answered; they did it anyway, in the name of philosophy and in the name of knowledge. I love their living outside of the box and not being defined by black and white. I love the imagination and whimsy required to study the query. I love that learned men were willing to give up time to an ethereal pursuit. It has been one of my favourite intellectual debates.

I once acted in my favourite play (and what a gift that was) THE LION IN WINTER. I played Phillip Capet, the king of France. In one of my favourite scenes (with the wonderful actor, Scott Latham), I said the line "What if is a game for scholars. What if angels sat on pinheads?"I always wanted to have an angel on my shoulder.So I decided I wanted my first tattoo (not knowing it would not be my last) to be this angel sitting on the head of a pin. The three artists I asked to render it didn't get it right but one came close - only her drawing was for a girl, not for a boy. I liked her concept and I used it as inspiration for the angel that now adorns my left arm. I was thrilled with the drawing I had until I showed it to Lisa-Gabrielle, who cried out

"i LOVE it!!! I LOVE that you're going to put a girl angel on your shoulder."

"It's a boy."

"No. That's the body of a girl angel."

I went right home and re drew the angel. Gave him a v shaped back and a bubble butt (my angel is naked). There we go. Ta da.

The day I got my angel, I took my bestie, Mary Margaret with me. She watched as I got marked, for the first time. She was going to get a tat as well but we ran out of time. Next time I am in Dallas, I may see if I can get her to get inked!

Once I had my angel, I was so proud, so excited, that I wanted to show everyone. So I began ripping the sleeves off my shirts. I remember an occasion when AJ slept over so that we could all get up at the crack of dawn and go on an expedition of the city (something we loved doing together). We were all asleep in one bed (I love having my loved ones sleep beside me - it gives a real intimacy to the relationship; just last week I was taking a nap and Faye Lane was lying beside me and it felt RIGHT) but, as usual, I woke in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. So I made myself a project. I spent the night cutting the sleeves off of shirts so that people could see my angel. When Pat and AJ awoke, they walked out into the kitchen to a floor covered with... what? What is this stuff? Are these socks? Are they leg warmers? What is all over the floor? They each picked one up, looked at me in The Happy Room, a shirt in one hand and scissors in the other. They began laughing.

On one of my birthdays, Pat threw me a party and he advised the guests that my favourite musical NINE was playing down the street and the perfect birthday present would be a t shirt from NINE. I got seven of them. Upon opening the first one, I immediately got a pair of scissors and began cutting. Everyone laughed and he admonished me to not defile the birthday gifts in front of the gift givers.

I still cut the sleeves off of every shirt I get (in fact, below you will see a brand new photo .. I came home from my recent trip to California with a T shirt from IN N OUT BURGER - it was nice weather this weekend and I wanted to wear it, so I was lying, naked, on the bed cutting the sleeves off and Pat grabbed a camera and popped a pic; this is a spontaneous photo and not a set up, I swear it! It makes me laugh).

In a store one day, a man walked up to me and asked if he could photograph my angel. He loved angels, he said, and he wanted one for his new tattoo. No. I'm sorry. That's my angel and my tattoo. I think you would be better off getting your own. It was a nice compliment but, really, why? I remembered the words of David Campbell: make it personal. Don't steal my body art for your body. Get your own.

I'll tell you something else. I was fat and I lost 60 pounds. That was good enough for me. Until I got that angel tattoo. One day I looked at that tattoo and said "my angel deserves a better canvas. I best make a bigger muscle for it. So, to that end, it was the angel on my shoulder that got me involved in weight training. I hope, I feel like, I have paid the angel back.

And that, dear readers and friends, is the story of my first tattoo, the story of the angel on my shoulder. I promise to write the stories of the other six tattoos on my body and include photos. For now, though, I'd love to know...What's the story behind YOUR tattoo?

(This is an old story, published on my FACEBOOK page, that I got out for a friend who is interested in my ink. Sorry to recycle! But sometimes it has to be done...)