For westerners, the tattoo has always been a metaphor of difference. – Margo DeMello, Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Co

A man without tattoos is invisible to the Gods. – Iban Proverb, as quoted on vanishingtattoo.com

There is no “underground” community, no dark den of drunken sailors initiating themselves into manhood via cheap, ill-conceived exercises in bodily perforation; it’s just a group of people who delight in using their bodies as billboards. – Joanne McCubrey, “Walking Art: Tattoos,” Mountain Democrat Weekend magazine, 199