Brian Holwerda playing lead Guitar for Joanie Mendenhall, showing off a really cool tattoo at Saturday's performance. Have you ever wondered what the story is behind a really detailed tattoo? If you look closely at Brian's tattoo, you'll see the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets in San Francisco (in the tenderloin?). You'll see what looks like Kwan Yin, the goddess of mercy playing a flute and in the folds of her robe, San Francisco in what appears to be the midst of an earthquake and fire, rocks a flying, a cable car, a shark and much more. I'd bet there's quite a story behind this tatoo!
Where does the word tattoo come from anyhow? It is almost certainly Polynesian in origin. In New Zealand: ta to=tattoo; in Tahiti/Otaheite tatu= puncturation; in Hawaiian: kakau=tattoo (pronounced Ka ka-oo, no T's in Hawaiian).
