I'm two weeks away from turning 46 years young and I'm contemplating my first tattoo. Yes, believe it! In a world where I'm pretty much the minority, being a female sans body ink, I've always thought about it but my parents' voices always rang in my ear after five minutes of the idea passing through my mind.

Two of our daughters have tattoos- at least two each, as far as I know. It wasn't until they came home with nose piercings that I became brave enough to pierce my own. So at 44, I sat in the chair of some seedy shop (at least that's how I came to think of any shop where people came out with body piercings and fresh tattoos) while a woman told me stories of other mid-lifers who did way more to their bodies than put a little hole through their noses.

The shock to my family when I came home with a shiny little diamond on the side of my nose disappeared rather quickly - thank goodness! And I went on to sport my new fashion for about two months until one day, I just took it out and...