I never really thought about getting any of my tattoos removed, even though I did think a lot of them were a little dumb. I had gotten them just to get them. Collecting tattoos felt like the perfect ...

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Or maybe it seemed like a borderline idea even then, and you did it anyway because you were 22 and that was the kind of decision 22-year-olds made in 1978.

I got my first tattoo in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was a tribal rose—a classic ’90s design—and an act of rebellion for 17-year-old me, who was away from home without parental supervision for the ...