THE GIRL WITH THE CAT TATTOO

Weekends at my studio can be quiet. Blue Mounds is far enough from Madison that not many people consider it to be a destination. When I moved my studio into the upstairs of the opera house in 2001, Blue Mounds was even quieter. Two bars were the only other businesses on Main Street. The town had seen a better time. The paint on the opera house was falling off in sheets. It too had seen better days. Since I moved in here, the former hardware store turned apartment building across the street was renovated and converted into a Dharma center. The grocery store, across Main Street and at the far end of the block is now a Buddhist center. The empty bank which had been used for storage, has also been renovated and turned into a pilates center. I will tell you more about it another time. The addition of curb and gutter have also taken it from the look of bib overalls to khaki slacks. Even though the town has become "respectable", it can still be a pretty quiet place on the weekends.

So, when I received an email from Angela, requesting to visit my studio on Saturday, it was something unusual, but not unheard of. Angela had contacted me a couple of months previous to her visit to request permission to use one of my etchings. While people do occassionally request to use one of my works, this request was one that I had never encountered before. Angela wanted to have one of my cat etchings tattooed onto one of her legs. After digesting her request (I have never been asked this before), I wrote back to her and told her that I would be honored. Her visit on Saturday was centered around showing me the tattoo. I was not sure what to expect when she arrived. Would it be one of many tattoos on her? Would my reserved upbringing cause me an uncomfortable feeling gazing at this woman's leg?

Angela arrived with her friend, Beth. The tattoo was done beautifully, and she told me that it was her first tattoo. For some reason I thought of the book "The girl with the dragon tattoo", which I had read during the summer. I could envision Angela as being the books heroine, Lisbeth Salander. I doubt that there is any parallel there at all, but needless to say, I was flattered that she chose one of my works for her tattoo.