COLE sent us a very moving letter along with his tattoo pics. We’ve shared it here in its entirety: “I’m a 42 year old gay man (we call them poofters in Australia), and about 5 years ago I had a serious encounter with cancer. I nearly died, and if it comes back I probably will. After I recovered I was badly scarred, and felt shitty about my body. It seems ironic, but Paul’s kind of porn helped me to feel that I was sexual again. The freedom with which the men encountered each other and took pleasure in what they did inspired me to put aside the concerns I had about how I appeared to other people, and embrace the pig inside. So I have, and I’ve never looked back.” “Although I look entirely conventional and conservative when you see me in the street, something darker, more complex and mysterious is beneath, and this tattoo is part of claiming, freeing and celebrating that. Getting marked is about me claiming that new identity (which is now written on my flesh as well as contained in my flesh), but it is also about being identified with all of those other men who feel the same, and reject fear in order to be who they are. Plus, the design makes my partner really, really hard.” COLE got his stamp in Victoria at: Electric Arts Tattoo and Body Piercing 11 Bair Street
Leongatha 3953
Victoria, Australia
[+61 3 5662 4090]