ANY
MAN
WHO'S
EVER
BEEN
IN
the
restroom
of
an
Atlanta
restaurant
or
gay
bar
and
stolen
a
brief,
innocent
glance
at
the
penis
of
Ed
“Johnson,”
was
probably
caught
in
the
act.
“You
can
always
tell
who’s
peeking,”
says
Johnson,
who
asked
that
his
real
last
name
not
be
used
because
he
is
not
out
to
family
members.
“It’s
fun,
if
they
do
get
a
peek,
to
watch
their
reaction.”
Johnson,
53,
used
to
have
insecurities
about
people
seeing
his
penis,
and
during
the
years
that
he
dated
women,
“a
lot
of
girls
wouldn’t
touch
it.”
Throughout
childhood
Johnson
wondered
why
his
penis
was
heavily
scarred,
and
he
learned
during
a
1983
visit
to
a
urologist
that
it
was
caused
by
his
circumcision
at
birth.
Years
later,
Johnson
looked
into
getting
laser
treatment
to
remove
the
scars,
but
skin
experts
recommended
he
research
cosmetic
tattooing.
Last
October,
after
one
tattoo
artist
had
already
refused
to
work
on
his
penis,
Johnson
was
walking
through
East
Point
and
passed
Southside
Tattoo.
“I
figured,
I’m
just
going
to
get
up
the
nerve
and
ask,”
he
recalls.
Three
tattoo
artists
turned
Johnson
down
before
one
agreed
to
draw
a
red,
orange
and
yellow
flame
on
the
top
side
of
his
penis
shaft.
“He
said
it
was
going
to
hurt
like
hell,
and
it
did,”
says
Johnson,
who
adds
that
the
artist
put
up
a
screen
for
privacy.
“Everybody
out
there
was
listening
for
me
to
come
across
the
top
of
that
screen,”
Johnson
says.
The
45-minute
procedure
helped
erase
a
lifetime
of
aesthetic
discomfort
for
Johnson,
and
has
even
made
urinating
entertaining.
“It’s
certainly
a
bit
more
amusing
to
look
at,”
Johnson
says.
“And
in
a
clothing-optional
environment,
it
certainly
gets
a
lot
of
attention.”
JOHNSON
ISN’T
THE
ONLY
GAY
metro
Atlantan
who
has
who
has
permanently
inked
a
private
area
of
his
body.
For
artistic
rather
than
medical
purposes,
Denise
Moss
traveled
to
Canada
earlier
this
year
to
get
a
tattoo
on
an
area
she
describes
as
her
“left
ovary.”
Moss
and
her
partner
of
20
years
were
married
in
Vancouver
in
July
2007,
and
the
couple
returned
to
Canada
in
April
for
Moss
to
get
tattooed
by
Justina
Kervel,
a
famed
tattoo
artist
who
appeared
on
Season
3
of
“The
‘L’
Word”
giving
Shane
and
Carmen
matching
tattoos.
Moss
was
prepared
for
the
tattoo
to
be
painful,
but
she
says
Kervel’s
hands
were
like
silk
as
she
inked
a
smoky
image
of
the
Vancouver
beach
monument
where
Moss
and
her
partner
were
married.
“I
almost
fell
asleep,”
Moss
says
of
Kervel’s
delicate
touch.
Moss
already
had
a
previous
tattoo,
but
she
says,
“This
one
means
a
whole
lot
more
to
me.
“It’s
more
like
a
tribute
for
my
partner,”
she
says.
Tattoos
are
a
popular
way
to
pay
homage
to
loved
ones.
Jerone
King
didn’t
really
consider
himself
to
be
the
tattoo
type
of
guy,
until
he
lost
his
brother
and
best
friend
to
AIDS
and
decided
to
memorialize
them
by
getting
the
red
AIDS
ribbon
on
both
of
his
calves.
“I
knew
eventually
someone
would
ask
me
about
it,
and
it
would
remind
me
of
them,”
says
King,
40.
“The
owner
did
it
for
free
because
he
said
it
was
the
first
time
anybody
had
done
one
of
those.”
“I
thought
that
was
going
to
be
it,
but
it
started
getting
addicting.”
King
next
got
the
Human
Rights
Campaign’s
equality
logo
tattooed
on
his
right
chest,
then
embarked
on
a
much
larger
art
piece
honoring
his
family.
The
tattoo
covers
both
sides
of
King’s
torso
and
incorporates
a
tribute
to
his
grandparents’
Cherokee
heritage,
the
crucifix
from
his
mother’s
grave,
and
the
words
“mother,
love,
hurts”
written
in
Korean.
Jerone
King
(Photo
by
Bo
Shell)
The
piece
took
about
five
years
to
complete,
but
King
doesn’t
get
to
show
it
off
as
much
as
he
used
to.
King
also
got
a
tattoo
of
a
tiger
across
his
abdomen,
which
is
the
reason
he
usually
keeps
his
shirt
on.
“When
I
moved
here,
I
was
walking
through
Piedmont
Park,
and
someone
complimented
me
on
my
tattoo,
and
he
said,
‘I’ve
seen
that
before,’”
King
recalls.
It
turns
out
a
gay
porn
star
has
an
identical
tiger,
and
after
a
few
more
instances
of
mistaken
identity,
King
says,
“I’ve
been
kind
of
keeping
my
shirt
on
ever
since.”
Dindi
Doward’s
fascination
with
tattoos
began
when
she
would
color
all
over
her
Barbie
dolls.
As
an
adult,
Doward
combined
her
love
of
ink
and
beautiful
ladies
by
getting
three
tattoos
of
women,
including
a
large
pin-up
doll
on
her
shoulder.
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