As cover art indicates, tattooed heroines and heroes have become widespread in romances, and tattoo artists as protagonists are also on the rise (you can check out our tattoo tag for books where tattooing is central!) However, just because a character is a tattoo artist doesn’t mean they tattoo their romantic counterpart.
When they do, however, some authors take that scene straight to sexytown.
From Naima Simone’s Grading Curves (which, by the way, I gave a DIK to):
We both fall silent, and the lull of the buzzing tattoo machine and the constant drag of it over my skin draws me into this subspace where only my body, his hands, and the bee-sting pain exists. Closing my eyes, I fall under the seduction of it. Craving the slight strokes and tugs on my back, the pain that’s riding the edge of pleasure. A low but aching throb sets up shop in my lower stomach and farther down still, in my sex.”
Now, I’ve never had a tattoo – but this is NOT how my tattooed friends told me the experience went for them. That being said, it’s not like a pain kink is unheard of or even all that unusual. After all, a central tenet of BDSM is the consensual infliction of pain.
So tattooed romance readers, tell me -was getting your tattoo (or tattoos) at all … well, sexy? Or is it more something you endured? Also, what did you get, and why, and where is it?
I'm a history geek and educator, and I've lived in five different countries in North America, Asia, and Europe. In addition to the usual subgenres, I'm partial to YA, Sci-fi/Fantasy, and graphic novels. I love to cook.
My daughter and I got our tattoos on her 18th birthday. Not matching!
Mine is on my wrist, a copy of Leeloo’s tattoo Fifth Element.
My daughter got stars on her hip. Later we realised it looked like the mobile in Koran’s apartment – in Fifth Element. Unconscious on my daughter’s part.
Mine has faded and I intend to get it refreshed soon. Love it.
I do love the idea of family tattoos!
“In the small there of your back
Your jeans are playing peek-a-boo
I’d like to see the other half
Of your butterfly tattoo”
I like that Brad Paisley song, but I don’t much like tattoos. I look at them and think, “Some day you’ll be old, and that’s all going to sag, and how’s it going to look then?”
There are a lot of tattoos I read about that I think are durable, like the ones the actors who played the Fellowship got after Lord of the Rings. if I had been an Olympian I would 1000% get those rings, and when they’re wrinkly ovals I’d show them to the care home staff like “DO YOU KNOW WHAT I DID???” Unfortunately I have not done anything cool like that.
Yeah–I’ve seen so many patients in our practice who want them gone–tattoo regret is real!
I can just about stand to read about characters with tattoos – although honestly, I do my best to block them out of any mental image I may have! – I really don’t like them IRL.
Well….
You’d never think I have tattoos. I’m pretty much a nope, not ready for a lifetime commitment with art kinda person. That said, I do. Because….
A huge thing is aesthetic tattooing–lips and brows are the most common but tattooing is also used in reconstructive surgery. (Check out this work. So incredible.) I have, very recently, as color leaches from my body, had both my eyebrows and my lips lightly colored. It was in no way shape or form an erotic experience!
For starters, I had to put numbing cream on the designated areas two hours before tattooing. So wonderfully, I could barely feel a thing. Secondly, it is painful to have your lips tattooed–eyebrows not so much. By the end of the session, the cream had begun to wear off on my lips and IT HURT!
So, my story is decidedly unsexy. But I do like my renewed brows!
My SiL has eyeliner tattoed on. She says it saves her time and she likes that it doesn’t run, etc. I don’t have tattoos – I like to play with makeup or let my lack of makeup show people I’m not in a good place :-) If I did get a tattoo it would be of this. After several decades of Star Wars fandom, I am not likely to regret it.
I love that!