a series of embroideries which allow me an excuse to obsessively research the tattoos of celebrity lesbians, dykes, trannys, and queers.

First I embroider white cloth to look like the notebook paper we all used in high school, then I choose a tattoo to render in grey thread...so that it looks like a pencil drawing.


Michelle Tea is a poet and novelist whose books include Rent Girl, Valencia, and The Beautiful: Collected Poems. Tea is also co-founder of the spoken word performance group Sister Spit. This tattoo is on her forearm.

Katastrophe (aka rocco kayiatos) is a San Francisco-based tranny emo-hop mc who performs around the country and has produced 2 albums of queer hip hop. Check out his my space page for more info. This tattoo reads "Heavy Handed" and it runs up the back of each of his forearms. His music was featured on the L-word this season, during Max's sex scene.

Portia DiRossi

The tattoo embroidered here belonged to Portia de Rossi. It was a ring tattoo which incorporated the initials of her former girlfriend Francesca Gregorini. She had the tattoo removed when she became Ellen Degeneres' partner.

Houston Comets player Sheryl Swoopes.
Sheryl is the first WNBA player to come out publicly as a lesbian.
The initials J.J. are her son's.