Slut Tag Central

After toying with the idea of getting tattoos for over a decade, my partner Drew and I finally took the Nestea plunge last week and got inked at a Portland parlor called Primitive Urges. Both of our "slut tags" (my friend Liza tells me that this is the popular nomenclature for tattoos in Boston) are healing well, with some nasty oozing and burning action thrown in to discourage us every time we think we've reached the home stretch.

Drew's armband is a work-in-progress. So far he's filled the circles inside the band with some of his favorite symbols, including an owl, a penguin and the Om symbol. If he's up for another round of flesh abuse he may go back to slap on a few more images.

In choosing a design for my tattoo I decided that I wanted something amusing and meaningful, and decided there was no better way to achieve that mix than to fuse two of my favorite fictional inspirations: Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz and Jerri Blank - the 46-year-old boozer/looser/user/high school freshman played by Amy Sedaris on the cult TV show Strangers With Candy.