Tattoos have a long history of being used as a marker of identity by LGBTQI women and non-binary people. Their symbolic role is often traced back to one night in the 1950s, when a group of butches from the bar scene in Buffalo, New York, headed over to Dirty Dick’s parlour. According to historians Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, it was a blue nautical star on the inside of their wrists – where it could be covered by a watch during the day. Some say it was a spur-ofthe-moment decision; others claim it was a gesture of defiance. Regardless, the star was soon to become a symbol of lesbian identity and a way to find one another in bars.
We don’t know why they chose the star, but it may
