Leroy Neiman Sketchbook

I Practiced tattooing in my grade school days in Minnesota, using classroom pen and inkwell, charging fellow students five cents an image. Years later, tattoos are much in evidence. Last year, I saw them in the Maud Adams/Bruce Dern movie, on the Rolling Stones' album Tattoo You and--I discovered--on Cher's shapely body. Backstage after a Las Vegas performance, I complimented Cher on a fine tattoo on her left ankle and she revealed a more personal example--a delicate tiger lily on her lower torso. She told me she would like to have modeled for Modigliani, but, as she assumed a classical pose, I was reminded of Botticelli's elegant Venus.