Love them?  Hate them?  Want one?  Have one?  Nobody seems to be neutral about tattoos.  But there’s one thing we can all agree on.  Tattoos have been around since the beginning of human history, and they aren’t going away anytime soon. 

The word tattoo is derived from the Tahitian word “tatau” which means to mark something.  The history of tattoos is as diverse as the people who wear them.  The reasons for having a tattoo are just as varied.  A tattoo can be a rite of passage, a sign of belonging to a clan or group, a status symbol, a token of bravery, a mark of beauty, uniqueness or self expression.  Because this site is about the West, I’ll confine the rest of this post to the Western World. 

Tattooing was widespread among Native American tribes.  For example, the Sioux believed that after death the spirit of a warrior mounts a horse and begins the journey to the afterlife.  On the way he meets an old woman who demands to see his tattoos.  If he has none, she turns him back to wander the world as a ghost. 

The usual method of tattooing involved piercing or cutting the skin with a sharp object, rubbing colored pigment into the wounds and letting them heal.  There were many variations on this method.  Even today’s techniques use the same principle.  Tattooing was brought to Europe in the early 1800s by sailors who’d discovered it in the South Pacific.  Over time it became a fad among the aristocracy.  Even members of the British royal family sported tattoos.  Inevitably, the practice of tattooing spread to America.  The first permanent tattoo shop in New York City was set up in 1846.  Most of the customers were military servicemen, and the tattoos tended to be patriotic or romantic in nature, especially with the onset of the civil war. 

Getting a tattoo wasn’t for the fainthearted.  The needles were attached to a wooden handle.  The tattoo artist dipped the needles in ink and moved his hand up and down rhythmically, puncturing the skin two or three times per second.  The technique required great dexterity and took years of practice to perfect.  Even for the best artists, the process was painfully slow. 

After Samuel O’Reilly invented the electric tattoo needle in 1891, tattooing became easier, cheaper and more common.  More women began getting tattoos.  A few people had their entire bodies covered with skin art—a guarantee of employment in traveling side shows.  In the American West, most tattooing would have been done in the larger cities.  A cowboy with a tattoo would probably have either been in the military or in prison, where inmates tattooed each other, often badly. 

In today’s society, tattoos are more popular than at any time in American history.  With academically trained artists entering the profession, tattooing can rise to the level of fine art.  These two examples were done by Teresa, an artist working in Santa Cruz, CA.  She has a degree in art and a growing reputation as a painter.  She also happens to be my daughter, and, yes, I have a sample of her early work, a little butterfly on my back.  I wear it proudly.  For me, it’s a connection to someone I love. 

What’s your take on tattoos?  I’m braced for some strong opinions.  Let’s have some fun with this. 

I’ve long desired to write a western historical with a lady photographer, but while I was writing them as Laurie Grant, the time never seemed to come. Now that I’m writing inspirational western historicals for Steeple Hill Love Inspired Historicals, the time finally came, and THE OUTLAW’S LADY is now out.

My heroine, Tess Hennessy, living in the Rio Grande valley of South Texas in the 1880’s, is a lady with a camera. Using his daguerreotype camera, she has always wanted to follow in the footsteps of her uncle, who was one of Mathew Brady’s photographers in the Civil War. But her mother, naturally enough, wants her to act like the young lady she is and make a fine marriage with a proper gentleman. But how is Tess to do so, Mrs. Hennessy despairs, if she is always traipsing around with a bulky camera and staining her clothes with nasty developing chemicals? It will take a special hero to appreciate the fiery Tess, but of course I provided her with such a man—Sandoval Parrish, a half-Mexican, half-Texan who may or may not be an outlaw with Delgado’s infamous gang of Mexican raiders who wreak havoc along the border. Sandoval is a man with at least two secrets, one of which haunts him and drives his desire for vengeance.

My research for this book was fascinating. We have it so easy these days with tiny digital cameras, loading our pictures onto computers and elsewhere in less time than it took to write this sentence. We have the ability to crop and enhance them, print them in color or black and white, even sepia, caption them, make videos—the possibilities are endless! But it was not always so. The cameras of yesterday required the ability of its subjects to hold still for at least 15-30 seconds. Action shots were impossible—all that registered was a blur. No wonder the people in portraits of that era looked so stiff!

A camera such as those used in the Civil War, and by my heroine, was a bulky affair, and if the photographer desired to develop his pictures on the spot, it had to be transported with its bottles of chemicals on a little cart complete with a leather or canvas hood over it to provide “darkroom” conditions. When Tess is forced into accompanying the infamous bandit on his exploits to make a photographic record, her “What-Is-It Wagon” must accompany her, and she has to make him understand that she can only take “still shots”—photographs of him and his banditos in action are not feasible. But he is perfectly content to pose of pictures with his booty, and have her use her drawing ability for the rest.

Old-time photographers of this era used the “wet collodion” process—glass plates were prepared with solutions of collodion, a thick liquid which left a thin transparent film, then dipped in silver nitrate to make the plate sensitive to light. While the plates were still wet (they had to be used within the hour), the photographer placed it into the camera, exposed it while the camera was aimed at his subjects, developed it, and washed it with water. When the negative, which developed it, was dry, it was placed on a sheet of light-sensitive paper and exposed to the sun. Finally this paper was developed, fixed, and washed, and voilà, a photograph!

I was fortunate enough to do a research trip to Texas for this book and for my upcoming series, “The Simpson Creek Spinsters.” We also went to Big Bend. Imagine my surprise when comparing the cover of THE OUTLAW’S LADY—easily the most beautiful, most scenic cover of my career–to a picture of me standing on the bank of the Rio Grande by the Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend revealed that the artist used this exact spot! How cool is that? I had to contact the artist and praise him, of course.

I hope you will enjoy reading THE OUTLAW’S LADY as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks, Petticoats and Pistols, for giving me this opportunity to write about this subject and this book!

Blessings, Laurie Kingery
www.lauriekingery.com

 Order a copy from amazon

My 96 ½ year old maternal grandmother is a pack rat. We discovered this when, at her insistence, the family began cleaning out her home and readying it to sell.

After three days of sorting, my sister, mother and I sat down to go through her jewelry boxes. The memories were fun – the bird and flower and dragonfly pins she always wore when teaching because her kindergarten and first grade students loved them. [The articulated owl was my favorite.] We found several cameos [see my August 7 post Carved in Stone--or Shell]. And pearls, of all lengths. Seems GGG-Great Grandmother Grace loves pearls.

In a box marked “Keepsakes” we found hat pins and buttons and old marbles. And a watch fob. The card with it says it belonged to GGG’s father, my Great Grandfather Ole, a Norwegian wheat farmer from North Dakota.

The chain is nothing fancy but there is a bit of bling on it that brought a wonderful surprise. The square gold locket fob hanging from the center held an old photo of my Great Grandmother Julia.

The find got me thinking: what kind of bling would you find on a gentleman’s dressing table in the 1800s?

A fancy button waiting to be sewn back onto a vest. We found a few of those, military coat buttons mostly, carefully pinned to cards identifying the owners.

Cufflinks of gold, perhaps declaring the gentleman’s membership in an organization like the Masons.

The most common bit of bling would likely be a pocket watch and chain, that extra little something that showed a man’s taste, his position, and sometimes offered a glimpse into his life.

The pocket watch has been around since the 1500s. Originally a status symbol only the very rich could afford, by the 19^th century most anyone who wanted one could buy one.

Attached to the pocket watch would be a chain, one end secured to his clothing, the other to the watch. Most commonly, the chain would hook through a button hole on his vest or coat, leaving the chain to drape across his middle to the pocket containing the watch. The chain was functional–it kept his watch attached to his person should it accidentally slip from the pocket–but it could also be jewelry.

My Great Grandfather’s watch chain was made of human hair. I assume the chain was braided by Julia for Ole–perhaps it was a gift for him when they were betrothed. I can imagine him, all spiffed up and looking proud, with that chain and fob adorning his vest.

What is a fob, you ask? Fobs are medallions that would hang from the end of a gentleman’s watch chain. Their purpose was to help pull the watch from their vest pocket.

They could be made of the same material as the chain: gold, silver, hair, etc. Here’s a good example – the fob is the small length of braided hair chain hanging by the button finding.

See the little loop at the end? From there the gentleman could hang almost any bit of bling he wished.

The fob could display the family crest.

Or be covered with gold and jewels.

It could be a locket, like Great Grandfather Ole’s. Or perhaps a cameo.

There were Double Albert chains, named for Queen Victoria’s husband, with a fob hanging from the center.

And the fob wasn’t an exclusively male piece of jewelry. Women commonly wore very ornate little fobs such as decorated balls or baskets of flowers or lockets. 

In Victorian times, garment clip chains were worn by women on the pocket of a blouse or waist band of a skirt and were worn by men clipped directly on the trouser pocket or vest pocket.

Women also wore their watches on long chains, or slides. The slide was a very long chain with a slide in the middle that could be adjusted to the length that looked best with the lady’s garment. The slide itself could be engraved, or decorated with seed pearls or small gemstones.

Or perhaps she preferred to wear a pin.

The possibilities were only limited by the wearer’s taste and financial means.

Does anyone you know wear a pocket watch? What’s the most unusual watch fob you’ve seen?

www.tracygarrett.com  

Hello Darlings,

The Fillies have invited Miss Laurie Kingery to again visit us this weekend.

Miss Laurie will entertain us with information about photography in the old West. Ah bet you don’t know how it was done. But if you come join us you’ll come away with more than inkling. Hmmm, wonder if Miss Laurie can take some pictures of me roping a cowboy? Hee-hee!

While Miss Laurie is here, she’s going to tell us about her new book called THE OUTLAW’S LADY. Sure does look like a humdinger!

Now don’t forget. Set your alarms and hitch up your wagons. Wildflower Junction is the place to be!

Can you believe it’s already been two years since P&P was launched? 

Happy Birthday to Us!

To celebrate the occasion, we decided to catch up with the three Fillies who saddled up and departed for different pastures: Kate Bridges, Geralyn Dawson, and Lorraine Heath.

Welcome back, ladies. 

Kate ~ Congratulations on your 2nd anniversary! I wish you many more! And much continued success to the Fillies and dear readers. It seems like I just left, and I miss you all. I’ve been busy. My next book comes out in November, called ALASKAN RENEGADE. Here’s a summary:  When the Skagway town nurse, Victoria Windhaven, sets off on a dangerous medical journey through the Alaskan wilderness, she is forced to ride with a man from her past–bodyguard Brant MacQuaid. Five years ago in St. Louis, Brant left her sister standing at the altar. Victoria can’t forgive him. He is one of three men who deserted Victoria when she needed him most. Now it’s up to them to battle the wilderness, a vicious criminal who is in desperate need of medical help for his father, and the undeniable attraction that grips them. For more info or to preorder, visit www.KateBridges.com. I’m still waiting on the front cover, which should be any day now. 

For those of you who’ve been following my writing projects, I’m still working on a romantic comedy screenplay that’s been a lot of fun, and very different from writing a novel. Whenever I get stuck on one plotline, I switch to the other project. I’ve also squeezed in a couple of holidays since I left–a trip to the Bahamas, and I just got back from camping in northern Ontario. I’ve got two more Alaska books coming out next year–I think I’m in love with that part of the world! Best wishes to all. I’ll pop in to say hi in person! 

Geralyn ~ Happy Anniversary P&P! After taking a writing sabbatical for much of 2008, I sold a romantic women’s fiction series to Ballantine. They’re publishing the first three books close together, so pub dates are still far out–late 2010 and early 2011. The first book of the new series features the fourth brother of my Callahan brothers series, so it’s both an ending and a new beginning. www.GeralynDawson.com

Lorraine ~ Congratulations to the fillies on your 2-year anniversary! Difficult to believe how quickly time passes. It’s wonderful to see the popularity of the site and to know that westerns still have a warm place in so many readers’ hearts.

I’ve missed hanging out with the fillies, but these days I sometimes feel as though I’m living under a rock. As you know, I had to mosey away from you wonderful ladies because of time commitment issues. By December, I will have had 7 releases this year: 3 Victorian-set historicals and 4 young adult novels.

My current releases are Surrender to the Devil, written by Lorraine Heath, and Full Moon, written by Rachel Hawthorne, which continues my recent ventures into the paranormal world.

Again, congratulations to the fillies for all your accomplishments and for continuing to keep westerns on the shelf. They still remain some of my favorite reads.  www.LorraineHeath.com

Thanks for joining us for the celebration, ladies, and best of luck in the future. We can’t wait to read your latest!

Good Evening!

Wow! All the posts today were wonderful. I really learned alot from all you bloggers. So I put all the names of all the bloggers on small sheets of paper, threw them all in the air and picked up two at random. Those winners are Katherine Heady and Melissa D.

Kathy and Melissa, could you contact me personally at karenkay.author@earthlink.net and give me your snail mail addresses? Thanks.

Also I wanted to mention that I am still running a contest for books and something else — I forget what that was right now — some sort of jewelry, so if you haven’t entered, please do so in the next few days as I will be ending that contest by the end of this week.

My thanks to all of you who left comments for me today. I really enjoyed chatting with you. And interestingly, I learned quite a few things myself.

Have a super rest of the week!

Woo-Hoo!

The Fillies reach a milestone on Thursday when we turn two years old.

Ah know you won’t want to miss helping us celebrate.

Looking back, we’ve had quite a few moments that linger in our hearts–so many warm and gracious guests and more prize winners than you can count. Plus, we’ve let you get to know us Fillies and discover a little of what makes us tick. It’s been fun.

We invite every one of you to stop by and share in the festivities. I might even offer you a nip of my special cider! Hee-hee!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

Forgive my late post today.  Too many things going on in my life at the moment.

Okay.  Have any of you ever heard of Linda Runyon?  Taking a page from Mary’s book, I thought I might post about food — survival style — just in case.  There’s never a need for anyone to ever starve — if they know what to look for in the wild.  Linda Runyon is a woman who spent years living off the land in upper state New York.  She has published a book about wild edible foods, called THE ESSENTIAL WILD FOOD SURVIVAL GUIDE, and her website is:  www.OfTheField.com.

Did you know that many wild plants that are found in lawns and woodlands everywhere are just as nutritious as plants and foods that we find in our grocery store?  The dandelion, for instance is very nutritious for humans — now for cows, by the way.  And they are found almost the world over.  It’s a perennial herb — grows to about 2 inches and when mature with seeds, has the white, fluffy pompoms that blow in the wind.

Indeed, the last time I was at a Whole Foods Market, I found a section devoted to the dandelion.

Because I have my nose in a history book so much nowadays, I became aware that over the centuries, there are governments that have used food (or lack thereof) as a weapon.  The Soviet Union, China, Thailand, Africa, Ethopia are examples of this type of warfare against the people. However, according to Linda Runyon, there is never a need to starve if you simply are educated on the wild plants and know what to look for.  In truth, I ordered her book because I decided is might pay someday to know what’s edible and what isn’t.

This is thistle, which is an edible plant.  It’s a North American plant and has been used as food or herb by Native Americas for thousands of years.  It’s a biennial plant — it is eaten raw or ground to a fine, green flour.  It can also be used as a tea or steamed.  Even its roots can be used as food and can be boiled for a tea.  It also has a medicinal uses. Milk thistle as an herb is known to treat liver problems.  It’s a good liver tonic.  This plant is found in fields and roadsides everywhere.

The wild blackberry can be used as a fruit (as I’m sure you all know) and is gathered in the summer.  It can be used in jams and candies and cakes and cookies and is found all over North America in woodland areas.

Now, I’m wondering how many of you know that clover is also an edible food.  If you’re like me, you might not like to see that clover growing in your yard, and yet in times of stress, it could be a food that would stave off hunger.  It has a strawberry colored clover (red clover) when it has a long stack — and the most common short stalk is the white clover.  It can be used as a cosmetic.  It can be ground for flour.  The flowers can be eaten raw and it can be used for tea and can be used in soups and stews.

The Cattail is not only a good food source, it can also be used as a fuel source.  This plant is about 30 % complex carbohydrates.  It’s flower heads also have medicinal use as a control for diarrhea.  It is found in swamps and bogs and wetlands.   But be sure that the area you gather it from is polution free.  Did you know that its leaves were once used to weave baskets and mats?

One thing that is a must – and Linda goes over this in detail in her book — is differientiating between edible plants and poisonous plants.  For instance, certain types of summac are edible, while other types are very poisonous.  There are, unfortunately, look-alikes in nature.  Perhaps this is why in Iroquois culture, it is believed that there were twins that populated the earth with plants — one created edible foods, the other poisonous foods.

 For instance field horsetail is very poisonous, yet looks alot like grass, which is food.   Or spreading Dogbane is very poisonous, yet looks alot like common milkweed, which is food.  Then there’s dallis grass, which is poison — it is a very deadly poison to both cattle and to humans — this looks alot like jungle rice, which is food.

I would highly recommend Linda’s book, which again is The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide. As Linda herself says, “Starvation is impossible with this book.”

I hope you have enjoyed this little post today about food and keeping away starvation, if it might ever come to that. As a girl scout I learned to be prepared. Perhaps this book might help us along that way. I’ll be giving away a free copy of the book, Soaring Eagle’s Embrace and/or War Cloud’s Passion to two different posters who leave a comment for me today.

Do remember, if you haven’t already done so, please pick up a copy of BLACK EAGLE today. It’s on sale at bookstores everywhere.

Delicious, fast, fun recipe for the Golden Days of Summer

GOLDEN RAISIN BUNS

Like little cream puffs with raisins and frosting. Fast, easy, they look fancy.

1 C. water

½ C. butter

¼ t. salt

1 t. sugar

Boil above ingredients together in sauce pan. Add:

1 C. flour

To boiling mixture. Remove from heat. Add:

4 eggs

(add all at once and mix immediately or eggs cook and you’ll have lumps of cooked egg whites, which won’t hurt anything) Add:

½ C. raisins, plumped*by soaking 5 minutes in boiling water. Drain.

Drop by tablespoonfuls on un-greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake 30 – 35 minutes at 3750 for 20 minutes until double, golden and firm.

Lemon Frosting:

1 T. melted butter

1 ½ T. heavy cream

1 C. powdered sugar

½ t. lemon juice

½ t. vanilla

Mix together. Add more cream to reach desired consistency.