Went to G’s talk on tattoos.
*Got his first tattoo at 42. He’d waited 20 years and finally got the courage.
He joked: “I was worried what Mum would think, though I got 30 piercings and Mum didn’t say anything about those.”
*G was in a TV doco about donating his tattoos to the NSW Art Gallery. It’s a great doco and we watched it.
*Most frequent questions: Do you have a tattoo? Yes. How much do they cost? Lots. Do you regret having them? No.
*When he had the tattoos done, “the perception of my body changed”. “Tiny minds” rejected him but he felt empowered.
*Recommends www.inked-up.com is good and gay-friendly.
*It costs about $160/hr for a tattoo, more if it’s done by a specialist.
*Years ago, the colours available were only black, red, green and yellow (they added mustard to yellow and it “hurt like hell”.) Now there are many more.
*When being gay was illegal, gay men used to get tattoos of busty women as a decoy.
*”Lots of friends died during the 1980s. We were going to 2-3 funerals a week.”
*He was inspired by Merv Chapman, who was in the S&M scene in Sydney in the 1950s-1960s. “Slicing balls in half.” Merv had a full body tattoo done by the most famous tattoo artists in the world who drew works that were made only for him – the theme was Greek and Roman mythology. He’s buried at South Head Cemetery.
*G’s theme is “Garden of earthly delights”. Mostly native Australian plants, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, and 30 little penises. The coat of arms of his parents on each foot.
*How do you get someone to tattoo your genitals? Build a relationship by getting lots of work done by them.
*The scrotum has a lot of flesh when it’s stretched out. Dick features ivy leaves and a rose on the head. “It was very slow and painful.” They used yellow but the colour faded within hours (the body rejects certain colours at different times).
*As he’s got older, he can’t do longer tattooing sessions. Breaks it down.
*History: Captain Cook, the Endeavour – stopped in Tahiti and got tribal-style tattoos. When they got to Botany Bay, they didn’t have anything to do while naturalist Joseph Banks (banksia were named after him) was running around drawing and collecting plants, so they might have tattooed each other on the beach then. When they returned to England, their tattoos sparked a craze which spread across Europe.
