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To Tattoo or Not To Tattoo

The world is divided into two kinds of people... Photo by: Mauro Luna

We’re been hearing about Angelina Jolie’s tattoos for years.  Now it seems as if all the young female celebrities have at least one.  Scarlett Johansson has a sunrise on her arm; its significance is personal.  Rihanna, Megan Fox, and Nicole Richie have nine each.  Katy Perry and Lindsay Lohan, among other singers and actresses, are catching up.

Miley Cyrus, just 19 years old, has been into ink for a while.  Her tats include a dream catcher on her torso, an anchor on her wrist, and a cross and heart on her hand.  “Just Breathe” is written on her ribcage and “LOVE” on her ear.  Her latest is an equals sign on her ring finger, symbolizing all love is equal.

Cher, now 65 year old, is credited, and rightly so, with bringing body art into the mainstream.  It matched her over-the-top sense of style.   “I don’t know why I like tattoos so much,” she has said. “I’ve had some of my tattoos for twenty years.  I love getting them.”  She takes them off, too, but it’s doubtful if she’ll ever take them all off.  Laser removal is a painful process.

Among Cher’s collection of work is a necklace with dangling charms, art deco crystal, a black orchid, a black rose, and a Chinese symbol meaning strength.  Her most prominent tattoo is a floral and butterfly motif imprinted on her derriere. How do we know this?  She has designed costumes made up of little more than a mesh body stocking to show it off, as she did in her music video “If I Could Turn Back Time.”

Tattoos aren’t just for the young, but the young at heart, even if you’re over forty.

Jennifer Aniston, 42, got her first earlier this year on the inside of her right foot in honor of Norman, her recently departed Welsh corgi-terrier.  Meg Ryan, 49, now dating John Mellencamp, is inked with “Life is short.”  Melanie Griffith sports a large heart engraved with her husband’s name.  She acquired it after she and Antonio Banderas married fifteen years ago.  Now 54 year old, she still has no qualms about wearing sleeveless tank tops or strapless evening dresses.

... those who have tattoos and those who are afraid of people with tattoos. Photo by: bucaorg

Angel wings are popular designs.  So are references to family members.  When 61 years old, Susan Sarandon put a pattern of interlocking gothic-style letters representing her three children on her back.   The phrase “andand” is displayed around her wrist like a bracelet.  It stands for  “A New Dawn A New Day,” reminding her that she can always start over.

As Sarandon blithely noted, “I’ve only got my body for a few more years anyway.”

You’re never too old to try this for yourself.  Just remember that tattoos start to fade after seven years.  Then they just look old.

© 2011 Susan Marg – All Rights Reserved

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You Go, Girls — Part Two

“I’m certainly not the first person to be in a relationship with a younger man,” Demi Moore said in response to the press coverage of her relationship with Ashton Kutcher, fifteen years her junior. “But somehow I was plucked out as a bit of a poster girl.”

She’s right about that!  Among certain Tinseltown types these May to December relationships go way back.

Is anyone familiar with the passionate affair between femme fatale Marlene Dietrich and actor Yul Brynner?  She met him back stage at the original production of The King and I in 1951.  He was a thirty-year-old hairless hunk, and she wanted him.  Despite his being married and her being nineteen years his senior, she had him.  Their obsessive relationship lasted four years before he tired of her possessive jealousy.

And what about Cher?  She’s almost as famous for dating younger guys as she is for being a gay icon.  For a brief time she went out with Tom Cruise, sixteen years her junior, and Richie Sambora, thirteen years younger than her, among others.  Just a few years ago at 62, she was dating a 38-year old biker dude named Tim Medvetz.  His claim to fame, besides hooking up with Cher, was to climb Mount Everest after recuperating from a bad motorcycle accident.

The most legendary of Cher’s live-in love interests was Ron Camilletti.  When they met  on her birthday in 1986, she was turning forty and presumably felt like giving herself a present.  He was a 22-year old bagel baker.  They were together for three years.

In 1991 Elizabeth Taylor, 59, took Larry Fortensky, a 39-year old construction worker, to be her eighth and last husband in a reported two million dollar wedding ceremony at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch.  She playfully called him “Larry the Lion” because of his blonde shag.  When he tired of being called “Mr. Elizabeth Taylor,” they divorced after four years.  They remained friends until her death.

And Madonna has always had her “toy boys”.  In fact, wasn’t the expression coined with her in mind? (Well, it should have been!) Carlos Leon, her personal trainer and the father of her daughter Lourdes, was eight years younger than she, and her husband Guy Ritchie, with whom she had a son and adopted two more children, was ten years younger.  We’ll give her credit: these were serious relationships, and the age differences can even be categorized within normal boundaries.

But then it went over-the-top.  A month after getting her divorce from Ritchie, Madonna met Jesus Luz, a Brazilian underwear model, on a fashion shoot. He was 22; his mother was 37, and Madge was 51.  It was apparent the young man was brought up well.  In interviews he refused to talk about his girlfriend.  After a year, he called it quits, citing their lack of common interests. Within months Madonna was dating a 24-year old French break dancer.

Being fit and thin aren’t necessarily requirements for being in the club, but these characteristics inspire a certain level of confidence, even among the well-known and popular.  After losing weight while appearing on this season’s “Dancing with the Stars,” Kirstie Alley, 60, was ready for romance.  She found it, too, with 21-year old rapper Shanice Boyd.  Unfortunately, Boyd was a Momma’s boy, literally, still living at home.

A good sense of humor helps, too.

 

© 2011 Susan Marg – All Rights Reserved