Two years as the local member

LAST week marked six years of a McGowan Labor Government keeping WA safe and strong, and two busy years as your local member for Collie-Preston.

The diverse electorate of Collie-Preston continues to challenge and inspire me to ensure communities prosper and the people are supported.

WE ARE lucky to have people in the Collie community who care about our local environment.

Be sure to come along to the Leschenault Catchment Council’s (LCC) Collie river restoration community forum being held next Tuesday, March 21.

The forum runs from 5pm to 8pm, at the Collie Ridge Motel.

Presenters include Jane Townsend from the Harvey River restoration task force and Dr Tim Storer from the Department of Water Environment and Regulation.

Tatt’s that…

ONCE upon a time, tattoos, other than traditional tribal ones, were the domain of the criminal element, the drunken sailor or the drifter.

All of these of the male persuasion and most definitely the sort your mother didn’t want you mixing with.

Indeed, tattoo parlours could only be found in back alleys in the seedier parts of town.

Tattoos were mostly single line drawings, or for the really tough, the word ‘Mum’ tattooed across the knuckles.

Nice people certainly didn’t go there.

I had an uncle who remained single well into his 40s.

With no family ties he travelled the world and would come to stay at our place bearing exotic treasures such as coolie hats or photos of him visiting the Pyramids.

He would also bring back cutting edge electronic devices.

We were goggle eyed at the cassette recorder he gave us.

It was the size of a small car and twice as heavy but we had hours of fun with it.

He was already the coolest uncle, but one day I happened to notice a small tattoo of an anchor on his left bicep. Shock horror! How daring!

I don’t know if mum or dad knew, but I certainly wasn’t telling them.

Fast forward a few decades and tattoos became more widely popular, with Chinese symbols or the name of your partner being the artwork of choice.

These quickly fell out of favour. The first amongst speculation that where you thought your artsy Chinese symbols said something deep and meaningful like ‘Live fast die young’ the tattoo artist was actually having a lend and it really said ‘’I’m a %#}¥’.

The latter fell by the wayside when the reality set in that tattoos were difficult to remove and therefore lived on long after the relationship had died. Awkward.

Then came the rise of colourfully intricate arm sleeves that no self respecting footballer could be without.

Women were also enthusiastically joining the fray with the bold decorating their midriffs and backs.

Hell, teachers and nurses were getting bluebirds on their ankles and roses on their wrists.