I'm betting at least SOME of you read my original post on the Femme Spiral -- the Femme's answer to being pegged as straight women, and the ying to the Butch blue star's yang.
My former partner knew how much it meant to me to get it...but sadly, I'm broke, and can barely afford food, none the less tattoos. She's a massage therapist, and for my Channukah present, she decided to trade massage work with her tattoo artist, but instead of inking herself more, she'll be letting me get my Femme Spiral. I met with the artist today, and will be going under the needle tomorrow. I am ridiculously excited!
Here are some concept ideas I gave to the artist for MY spiral (best thing about the spiral idea? You can do whatever you want with it; crop circles, nautiluses, DNA, etc):
Obviously, I wanted my spiral to be of the more ornate, and slightly organic type. I'm so psyched for tomorrow.
However, this concept only works if other people hop on board with me. So I invite you all to join the Femme gang, and show your colors by getting your very own Femme Spiral on your wrist. You'll know about the secret symbol, and can explain it to others, if you care to, and help boost our gang membership.
Of course, I'd never suggest someone who doesn't want a tattoo go get one. But if you've been thinking about it, and wanting to, here you go. I'm putting a call out to all Femmes - design and get your own Femme Spiral tattoo! And if you're anti-tattoo, sharpie works too.
If you *do* get one, I'd love to see pictures. I know I'll be posting mine!
Latest posts by essinem
- Inspiration - August 24th, 2010
- Defining Femme - June 17th, 2010
- Polyamory 101/Relationship Mapping Class - Denver, CO - February 15th, 2009
- The Femme Spiral...in real life - February 10th, 2009
- A study on ethnography and dykes - February 6th, 2009
I cannot wait to see yours. And get one of my own.
the tattoo designs you've posted are really beautiful, i can't wait to see yours!
while i think that the spiral tattoo is a pretty idea, and while i have lots of tattoos (many queer) i don't think i'll be following through with one for myself. I'm really obsessed with queer history and this connection doesn't quite follow through for me.
"During this same time period, the cultural push to be identified as lesbians- or at least different- all the time was so powerful that it generated a new form of identification among the tough bar lesbians: a star tattoo on the top of the wrist, which was usually covered by a watch. This was the first symbol of community identity that did not rely on butch-fem imagery. We can trace this phenomenon back to an evening of revelry in the late 1950's, when a few butches trooped over to "Dirty Dick's" tattoo parlor on Chippewa Street and had the tiny blue five-pointed star put on their wrists. Later, some of the fems of this group also got their stars."
-pg. 189 Boots of Leather Slippers of Gold
I guess to me I just feel like Team Gina oversimplified this piece of history so much in their song "Butch-Femme" (which i have so many issues with - and blogged about on my now defunct queer media blog: http://fuchsiafocus.blogspot.com/2007/09/its-not-that-i-want-to-be-sterotype-of.html