Posted on 08/24/2010 11:32:10 AM PDT by a fool in paradise
SPRING HILL — Mimi Rosenthal, 101, pushed her Winnie Walker off to the side and sat back in the black leather chair. At 4 feet, 10 inches, her feet didn't quite rest on the floor. And for her third tattoo, she wanted to be comfortable.
"Let's find something for your feet," said tattoo artist Michelle Gallo-Kohlas, a longtime family friend entrusted with the honor of inking Rosenthal's arm.
Several teenage girls' voices traveled down the hall Saturday afternoon from the waiting room of Requiem Body Art, an upscale piercing and tattoo shop.
"Is she getting a tattoo?"
"Are you serious?"
"That is soooo cool!"
For Rosenthal, who was born in a small Kansas town in 1909, life has been an adventure.
She studied journalism in Nebraska and advertising in New York. She married a man she has outlived by nearly 50 years. She has two daughters, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
She spent the majority of her life living and working on Long Island, and has an accent to prove it. But she got to see the world — Portugal, South Africa, India and China — thanks to her career in a travel agency.
At 85, Rosenthal was diagnosed with breast cancer. With the help of chemotherapy, she conquered that, too. Now she lives in Surfside Beach, S.C., with her daughter. She spends her time reading the New York Times online, communicating on Facebook and participating in a couple of book groups.
And with her characteristic wit, she has embraced body art.
"Did you say your friends call you the Tattoo Lady?" a reporter asked.
"I was kidding," she dead-panned.
At age 99, Rosenthal decided to get her first tattoo, a tiny blue butterfly about the size of a dime.
Gallo-Kohlas remembers Rosenthal looking at the finished tattoo and proclaiming it too small.
At 100, Rosenthal tried again, this time much bigger and on the other leg.
The silver-dollar-sized flower was better, but it required her to lift her pant leg to show it off. Next time, she decided, she'd get one on her arm.
Meredith Herrmann, 34, eyes her grandmother's tattoos with a smug sense of irony. Herrmann remembers the family's reaction when she got her own first tattoo at 17.
"We're Jewish," she said. "I thought they'd kill me."
And what did Rosenthal think back then?
"She didn't approve at first," Herrmann said. "It's such a generation gap."
So what changed Rosenthal's mind?
Why a tattoo? Why now?
"Why not?" Rosenthal said.
Whether it was her idea or the suggestion of family members is debatable.
Rosenthal says they love to say she's 101 and has a tattoo.
They say she likes the attention.
On Saturday, Gallo-Kohlas worked carefully and slowly on the fleshy part of Rosenthal's left arm.
She had selected a yellow sunflower for this tattoo.
"Her skin is so fragile," Gallo-Kohlas said. "It's like uncharted territory."
It took longer than they thought it would, but Rosenthal was pleased with the results.
"It's pretty," she said with a broad smile.
Will there be a next time?
"Next time I'm getting it on my butt," Rosenthal said, kidding again.
2nd Chronicles chapter 15, verses 12 & 13, which says:
“And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul, but that whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman.”
Next door is a restaurant with jumbo shrimp.
Gee, how charming.
Yeah, I guess I should cut her some slack, I was pretty hard.
I usually do for anyone older than me, and that’s pretty old!
I hope you don’t eat any shrimp or other sea creatures that don’t have fins and scales or you are in big trouble!!!!
Leviticus chapter 11
9 “These you may eat, of all that are in the waters. Everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, you may eat. 10 But anything in the seas or the rivers that has not fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is detestable to you. 11 You shall regard them as detestable; you shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall detest their carcasses. 12 Everything in the waters that has not fins and scales is detestable to you.
It was pretty good post that you wrote (both times). If a tattoo and reading the New York Times is the worst she has done, she has a good chance of seeing the good Lord. If that is enough to keep her from Salvation, we are all in deep doo doo. lol.
Meant to say “both of us are in trouble”....I love shrimp!!!!!
Maybe she should get her nipples pierced why she’s at it.
Your’re right.
At least she didn’t become president and give our hard earned tax dollars to who knows where or what, and I don’t think she would bow to our enemies either.
And the fact that she can even read is pretty good for her age, even if it is the N.Y. times.
What do her parents think about this?
:^D
Requiem Body Art. The name is apropos for Mimi.
Dang it, but I do like my fried catfish.
Good for her. Nothing like exercising your personal freedom. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Wisdom and age have been known to arrive together; but sometimes age comes alone.
I have an OLD sign in my office (it hung in our cabin/shack as long as I can remember): “We get too soon old and too late SCHMART!”
Actually though, I am very cool with this. Good grief, at her age, she’s welcome to do as she wants with her money without caring for strangers looking askance.
Reminds me of my aunt’s new friend at the retirement community. The old gal got her first tattoo at 89. Told ‘em she’ll be back next year when she turns 90!
There’s no fool like an old fool.
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