When I was a 1950's teenager growing up in blue collar, East St. Louis, there were two kinds of guys sporting tattoos; World War II vets, mostly Navy fellas and an inner city white gang called the
' Pa-Chewks.'
The military men's tattoos were all patriotic in theme, whereas the greasy-hair punk-gang sported a Christian cross tattoo with three dots above it and was on the back of the hand. I suppose the gang guys thought that cross tattoo was a scary calling card.
Today's tattoo culture is over-the-top with designs of kinds covering every inch of the male and female body; these are tattoos with hefty price tags. I saw a cousin three years ago and she was pretty proud of a new $250.00 yellow colored rose tattoo at the top of her left breast. I just saw her this past June and she has recently had breast enlargements. That little yellow rose tattoo now looks like a large sunflower growing from her clavicle.
Last week while attending a college baseball game, I was seated behind a coed who had numerous limericks tattooed all across her back and around her sides. The limerick 'punch lines' were all hidden discreetly under clothing. I was very tempted to ask her how the one limerick ended..."There once was a monkey named Spunky who..."
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