Each of these pictures can be viewed large by clicking on the link, of course. Pictures are at the bottom of this page...

So, I got a new tattoo...

I suppose first I should tell you the story of my old tattoos. If you read Blue Blood magazine, then you know this story already. I did my first tattoo jailhouse style in 1990, when I felt I had reached a certain milestone in my life. That tattoo is of the man-woman symbol, and I did it at a point when I felt I'd reached a certain understanding and consciousness of my adult sexuality that in the years before that I had not had. It was the first day I'd slept with both my male lover and my female lover in the same day (and not at the same time). It was also the day I'd been to see Fugazi at the FChannel and I guess I was feeling rather punk.

I don't know where I learned to do a jailhouse tattoo. It's just one of those things I picked up by osmosis, somewhere in my youth. Maybe I learned it on MTV. Who knows. India ink, sewing needle, an ice cube, and some thread.

The man-woman symbol is about half an inch long and took about twenty five minutes to do.

In 1992 I did the second one, a black feather. I did it because I was quitting my day job to write full time. The symbolic implications of the feather worked for me, the quill, freedom, and in my own internal mythos which I can't really describe here. Let's say to get some things done you have to yank the feather out of your guardian angel's wing. No pain no gain.

I did the second feather in 1995, at the World Fantasy Convention in Baltimore. The fist book I edited for a New York publisher came out that month (OCtober, ) and I commemorated the event. I was doing a Halloween tour, reading in Baltimore from Dark Angels and then going on to New Orleans to do an erotic vampire reading there. I had thought maybe I'd get the tattoo in New Orleans, but the night of the Baltimore reading was sitting around with some of the other contributors to the book (Thomas S. Roche, Gary Bowen) one of whom was Amelia G, editrix of Blue Blood, and when I mentioned I'd do it myself if someone could get me the supplies, Amelia said she'd get me the supplies if she could photograph it for the magazine.

So, skip forward to the end of 1996. I send my agent a proposal to shop around, my collection of erotic short stories. I called the book BLACK FEATHERS and said if they published it, I'd do another tattoo as a book launch event.

In June 1998, the book came out and I planned a book launch party at the Meow Mix club in New York City. Meox Mix is a dyke bar down in Alphabet City, and the original plan was to have the tattoo do during the party as a piece of performance art. In a strange twist of fate, though, tattooing was legalized in New York City. Tattoo artists who had been willing to do it when tattooing was illegal, weren't willing to risk losing their new licenses once they had them to lose.

So I instead met with a tattooist named Eric, at Venus Modern Body Arts, just a few blocks from the club, and had the tat done that afternoon. I figured, professional book, professional tattoo. Eric was really great, understood the commemorative meaning of the tat and was psyched to be a part of the whole thing.

Efrain Gonzalez, Brooklyn-based photographer of the leather scene and body art, captured the event on film. So here we have:

Me before getting the new tat.

Me and Eric getting ready to do it.

The needles begins to cut.

At the club, I start reading from the book onstage. Notice the bandage covering the tattoo.
At last, I uncover the tat for the audience to see.
I finish off by reading the final story in the book.
So here I am with the complete tattoo collection.
And here is a close up of just the tattoos.
Credit where credit is due. Special thanks to:
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