First tat at 60. A line from a love letter from my dad to my mum in 1959. Never fancied one before… but it felt very right to do.

Woman of the Day artist and suffragette Patricia Woodlock (1873-1930) of Liverpool, founder member of the Liverpool branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union, the woman who served the longest prison sentence of any suffragette in 1908 for her suffragette activities including three months in solitary confinement. That last fact fills me with horror and I’ll tell you why. In 1903, Patricia helped to found the Liverpool branch of the WSPU. Her reasons were set out in an article she wrote for Votes For Women and might well strike a chord with you today: "A member of Parliament recently spoke of members of the WSPU as being possessed by fanaticism, and it occurred to me that politicians stood in need of a new dictionary – so many words having a different meaning as applied to women or to men. This word fanaticism simply meant enthusiasm." Does that sound familiar? In 1905, she and other women from Lancashire tried to enter the House of Commons. She was imprisoned at HMP Holloway for a fortnight which meant spending Christmas in prison. It didn’t stop her. Patricia’s next spell in prison came in March 1907 when she was arrested in Parliament Square along with 61 other women after taking part in the first ever Women’s Parliament rally and march from Caxton Hall to protest against the omission of women’s suffrage from the King’s Speech. Fifty-three women chose prison over a fine. At trial, Patricia said, “It is an honour for me to go to prison on behalf of my sisters.” Did that stop her? No. In July 1908, she and Mancunian suffragette Mabel Capper tried to make a speech at the Royal Exchange in Manchester, a male preserve, but they were ejected. They had more success the next day with their demonstration in Heaton Park, Manchester, one that the pro-suffrage Manchester Evening News described as "decorous", "informative" and "logical". About 50,000 people attended, mainly because WSPU members had been busy leafleting the public in advance. (Chalking the pavements worked too). Patricia was sentenced to three months following the Second Women's Parliament in Caxton Hall in March 1909. She was representing Liverpool. Worse was yet to come. In September 1909, she took part in a protest during the visit of Prime Minister HH Asquith to Birmingham and was arrested for obstruction. She was sentenced to three months at HMP Winson Green and placed in solitary. For THREE months. Let me tell you what happens to women held in solitary for long periods. They lose all sense of time, even of night and day. They suffer sensory deprivation which the body tries to counteract with hallucinations. They are vulnerable to anxiety, depression and paranoia. It is an extremely harsh punishment. Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence visited her. Patricia’s father sent her a letter of support. MPs protested in the House of Commons. The Home Secretary brushed off their concerns: “I see no reason for interference on my part." I do not know whether she was placed on Restricted Diet (16 ounces of bread and one pint of water per day) but on her release, a “pale and thin” Patricia was greeted at the prison gates by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and several hundred supporters. "As early as half-past seven a large crowd assembled opposite the prison gates, augmented from time to time by the curious or sympathetic among the passers-by, and time went on the numbers swelled, until several hundreds were waiting, the enlivening strains of Bryer's band and the vigorous efforts of bill-distributors making the time pass quickly. As the hour of release drew near a hush fell on the assembled crowd, and when the gate opened and a solitary figure emerged, a mighty cheer went up. Miss Woodlock, who looked pale and thin, but had the light of indomitable courage burning in her eyes, at once entered Mrs Pethick Lawrence's motor-car, which was in waiting, and was driven away, the crowd following, cheering and singing the Marseillaise.  It was inspiriting to see the numbers of strangers – principally girls and working men – joining in the song and waving aloft their tool-bags and dinner-bundles." Months later, a defiant Patricia took part in a rooftop protest with Mabel Capper and other suffragettes at a hall in Birmingham where Asquith was speaking. This time, she did a month in Winson Green, went on hunger strike and was forcefed. Unlike the Governor of Holloway who had discontinued the brutal practice of forcefeeding, the Governor of Winson Green had no such scruples. In all, Patricia was imprisoned seven times in three years, the last time immediately following Black Friday on 18 November 1910 when the other Emmeline, Mrs Pankhurst, led 300 women from Caxton Hall to the House of Commons to protest and the Metropolitan Police disgraced itself. The women were attacked repeatedly, beaten with fists and feet, even indecently assaulted (the Met Commissioner ignored what women said and blamed members of the public for that). Patricia died in 1961, aged 87. “It is the object of the Government in sending women to prison in this so-called century of progress…to stop women agitating, but they do not know women…The more they send us to prison, the more determined we are when we come out....When women are determined to have their rights, we will get them. We are not asking for favours because we are women; all we want is equality."

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