It used to be that, when a tattooed person walked down the street, arms uncovered and chest ablaze with a full-color replica of a trimasted schooner, proper society would duck into a store front or dash to the other side of the street. I remember buying some potted geraniums at a nursery. When a women approached me and saw my Bob Roberts skull with a bloody dagger jammed in its forehead, she froze in her tracks. "Oh, you frightened me!" she gasped.

Between you and me, I breathed a sigh of relief. But that was nothing like the experience of the SKIN & INK Doll in our April issue. I photographed her for a book of California pinups and she was summarily fired when she took a copy to work and flashed her photos to fellow employees. She was out the door before you could say Arnold Schwarzenegger.

All this was brought to mind at a video session I did last weekend. Part of the job was to ask the girls their worst tattoo experience. One tall, full-sleeved Eurasian beauty reported that many members of the opposite sex had reprimanded her with, "How could you do that to yourself?" And, of course, the classic follow-up line, "You used to be so pretty."

Over the last decade, the general public has become more tolerant of tattooed people. Hell, the general public has become the tattooed people! In fact, about 33% of them, according to the Harris Poll. You can't turn around without seeing a tattoo on television or a billboard. That, I guess, is a good thing. It's nice to be accepted, but it takes away the sexiness of having ink, don't you think? I mean, getting a tattoo isn't supposed to be like acquiring a new pair of shoes. It's supposed to be dangerous. When you take off your coat and expose those twin dragons wrapped around your forearms, it's cool when the crowd steps back in horror.

It's true, taste in art and perceptions always change. What was in yesterday is out tomorrow. What was hip in August sucks in December. They hate tattoos on Monday and love them on Tuesday. But one irrefutable fact remains, that ink on your skin-it lasts forever.

Bob Baxter
Editor-in Chief