Exercising my right to bare arms in Greece last month.

Last month, I wrote about tattoos in Greece, noting my favorite shops and even offering a meze platter of personal experience about being a heavily tattooed women who understands what people are saying about me as I walk the streets, from Athens to the islands.

A reporter from Athens News, Erinn Unger, saw the blog post and contacted me for a story she was working on focused on tattoo culture in Greece. That article is now online here. Erinn did a great job of talking to tattoo artists and including my experience to show how attitudes towards tattoos in the country are changing, albeit very slowly. And in my case, sometimes not fast enough. Here's a taste from the article:

While on Mykonos a few years ago, one night she went for a stroll in a strapless dress around the centre. Walking a few steps ahead of Kakoulas and her boyfriend, there was a statuesque transvestite in a shimmery dress, topped off with a feather boa. An old woman sweeping a stoop didn't give the transvestite a second look, but Kakoulas and her tattooed arms got three crosses and an exclaimed Christe kai Panayia!

"All I could do was giggle," Kakoulas said. "Not even a drag queen could pave the way for my acceptance as a tattooed woman."

There's also a great sidebar on the history of tattoos in ancient Greece, including those found on Thracian and Spartan women.

To see the print layout of the article with images, check the scan on Flickr.