Committment

I'm always amazed and slightly impressed with people who take hold of a particular lifestyle choice (and I'm not talking about gay people, I'm talking about Biker Guy or Gal, or Goth Teen, or Body Art Fella, or Fashionista, etc. Actual choices, not inborn traits) with both hands and don't let go. Mostly, I am slightly impressed that they are so committed. I still can't decide what I want to do when I grow up, and let's face it, at my age, the grown-up ship has long since sailed.

But I do love tattoo magazines.* Every month or so, Loki and the girls and I will head over to the bookstore (and there are only 2 chain bookstores left, so we usually pick Borders because B&N is at the mall, and I hate going to the mall), and I will unfailingly pick up every tattoo magazine on the rack, and just marvel at the committment the people documented within have made to their chosen lifestyle.

*Smooth transition, no?

I admire the artistry of some of the tattoo artists, no doubt about that. But I can't imagine making a decision on what tattoo to get, so I hold the tattooed in special regard, if only for their decisiveness.

A year or so ago, I was flipping through a British tattoo magazine, and I saw photos of tattoos that won awards at a tattoo convention (and here, again, is the committment - I have only attended 2 conventions in my life, one of them for work purposes - a telecommunications convention, so that was mandatory, and one Science Fiction convention so I could get Nicholas Brendon's autograph on my CD of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical, "Once More, With Feeling", and yes, that is a little dorky, but I can't help it, Joss Whedon and I are like twin souls, parted at birth, only he's much more successful and a much better writer than I am, and it's really beyond time for me to bring this sentence to an end) and in one photo, a gentleman had a lovely tattoo of what appeared to be a green alien woman with very large breasts. On his penis.

Do you want to know what award he won?

His award, for the tattoo on his penis, was the "Best Small". I admit, I felt a little pity for him - he went through all the pain of having a ink forced under his skin with a small sharp needle, only to be recognized for the minimal size of his member.

Still, just getting the tattoo leave me slightly impressed, so...congratulations, English guy, with your "best small".