The secret gay history of tattoos and their hidden meanings

[+ Avalon]

https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/gay-history-tattoos/#gs.9MzMp10

[Epigonos]

Most interesting! When I turned 35, a million years ago, I wanted to do something no normal, rational, 35 year old public high school teacher would do. The only thing I could come up was getting a tattoo, of my birth sign, on the back of my left shoulder. Tattoo parlors weren't all that common in those days so I had to search to find one. I finally located one at the old Long Beach pier. I drove down one evening and had the tattoo artist tattoo a scorpion on my shoulder. Until I read the above article I had no idea a scorpion tattoo had anything to do with ones HIV status. Live and learn.

Edited August 27, 2018 by Epigonos

[bnm73]

Until I read the above article I have no idea a scorpion tattoo had anything to do with ones HIV status. Live and learn.

 

I think the "Scorpio = HIV" equation is more common in -- if not specific to -- Britain than in the US. Remember that site is based in England, so that's what its focus is.

[BabyBoomer]

Until I read the above article I have no idea a scorpion tattoo had anything to do with ones HIV status.

 

There was no HIV in 1975 when you got your tattoo.

 

~Boomer~

[+ sync]

While HIV didn't appear in the US until the 1980's it is reported to have crossed from chimps to humans as early as the 1920's.

https://www.avert.org/professionals/history-hiv-aids/origin