Faces
Octogenarian relishes fun found in new ink I
t started five years ago when Helen Lambin got a tattoo of a peace symbol in the middle of a daisy to cel- ebrate a milestone birthday. Next came a baby dolphin, and then the mother dolphin. Before long, she was get- ting her arms and legs inked with a variety of symbols that appealed to her, includ- ing several that spoke to her spirituality. Lambin isn’t unique in her love of body art, but few people get their first tattoo at 75. Now 80, the member of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Chicago, is usually planning the next tattoo before the lat- est one is done.
Helen Lambin of Chicago says her tattoos are a “bridge that crosses gender, age and race.”
Though she gets them for personal enjoyment, she found an added bonus in her new passion. “They have been
a bridge, which I didn’t anticipate,” she said. “It’s a bridge that crosses gen- der, age and race. People come up to me all the time and ask me questions. Most of them are friendly.” Lambin said the original impulse came “like a deep voice from the sky
that said, ‘Get a tattoo.’ My daughter said it was God saying, ‘You lost your shoe,’ ” Lambin joked. Rosemary, her 49-year-old daughter (son Joseph is 50 and daughter Jeanne is 43), got a tattoo a decade earlier. She was only a little surprised her mother followed in her footsteps. “I think it’s great,” Rosemary said. “Soci- ety has all of these expectations about what someone should do at a certain age. But she’s not hurting anybody or anything, so why shouldn’t she do it?”
100 plus birthdays Members of Immanuel have been
positive about her hobby, Lambin said. She even served as president of the congregation. Her tattoos include a Christian fish symbol and a symbol for the Trinity. She also has footprints and a lamp to represent Psalm 119. When she decided to get the Luther Rose, she asked her pastor if he thought anyone would be offended. “He told me he thought it would be fine, depending on where I put it,” she said.
Lambin said she puts tattoos only where they can be seen in polite company—her arms and legs. Before choosing a tattoo, she researches it to make sure no hate groups use the symbol. Thinking about her 18-year-old
self learning that she’d be doing this at 80 made her laugh uncontrollably. “I would have pictured myself as a sweet, respectable, little old lady, which I’m not,” she said. She thinks her husband Henry, a psychologist who died in 1996, would have been OK with her tattoos.
Lambin doesn’t know how many more tattoos she’ll get, but she enjoys the ones she has. “I may be 80, but inside I’m 40,” she said. “And for me this is fun. It’s really fun.”
Jeff Favre Favre is a contributing editor of The Lutheran.
105: Arlene Dietrich, First, Dows, Iowa. 104: Rachel Knaub, Fifth, Springfield, Ohio; Anna Meyer, First, Avoca, Neb. 102: Evelyn Arndt, St. Paul, Hector, Minn.; Margaret Dohrman, St. Luke, Emerson, Neb.; Mabel Yaag, Trinity, Pottsville, Pa. 101: Miriam Mowery, St. John, Siglerville, Pa.; Olga Pestal, Woodlake, Richfield, Minn.; Frieda Rowell, Concordia, Water- town, N.Y.; Helen Stang, Emmanuel, Bethesda, Md. 100: Ruthie Anderson, Elim, Scandia, Minn.; Catherine Hardenstine, St. Peter, Pine Grove, Pa.; Lois Eleanor Heins, Pontiac, Ill.; Julia Nelson, First, Lake City, Minn.; Sarah Ann Stenberg, Holmen, Holmen, Wis.
Share your stories of ELCA Lutherans and your 100+ members in “Faces.” Send to:
lutheran@thelutheran.org or “Faces,” The Lutheran, 8765 W. Hig gins Rd.,Chicago, IL 60631.
November 2013 63
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