It certainly wasn't what I had in mind when I designed the label for Ravenswood winery. Joel Peterson experienced a vision of three ravens, and wanted something evocative of that powerful personal image to represent his wines. I struck upon a triskelion of three ravens entwined in an interlocking pattern.

A few years later young women began to adopt the label design as a tattoo. It shows up on shoulders and backs, but usually hips. A lot of young people are getting tattoos, some of them quite large and garish. A lot of young people are getting married, too. I conclude that in these fast-changing times when a computer is obsolete before you get it out of the store, and there's nothing you can learn in school that will assure you of getting a job and there's nothing that leads you to believe that Social Security will be around to make you secure in your old age and there's nothing certain but fast, incomprehensible, out-of-control change, that young people want some sort of permanence in their lives.

A tattoo is certainly permanent. Marriage is also permanent-not as permanent as a tattoo, I'll grant, but the idea is definitely there. What happens when you change your mind? I suggest that you put your money in tattoo removal technology.