Though it’s impolite to acknowledge age in most circles (especially southern ones), Dolly Parton is getting up there. The country singer turns 71 on January 19, but the most notable thing about the milestone may be how little it changes anything. She will never age out of being a national treasure, a crown jewel in America's rhinestone tiara—her sparkle hasn't diminished in over 50 years of performing.

In a culture that tends to cannibalize the women it loves most—our Lindsays, our Britneys, Parton’s goddaughter Miley—Parton has always kept an easy grip on her relationship with the public. You could argue that she did most of her living before avenues for gossip expanded online, but even when the National Enquirer was king, she was an open book.

Take her tattoos, for example, which have reached mythical status. For decades, people have sought evidence that Parton's permanently wearing long sleeves hinted at the many colorful tattoos that allegedly decorate her arms and torso. What exactly the tattoos, which she confirmed to Vanity Fair did exist, look like remains pretty much the one thing the woman has kept to herself.

"I don’t really like to make a big to-do of [the tattoos] because people make such a big damn deal over every little thing,” she said in a recent interview with Vanity Fair. “But most of the tattoos, when I first started, I was covering up some scars that I had, ‘cause I have a tendency to have keloid scar tissue, and I have a tendency where if I have any kind of scars anywhere then they kind of have a purple tinge that I can never get rid of. So mine are all pastels, what few that I have, and they’re meant to cover some scars. I’m not trying to make some big, bold statement.”

Not making a big, bold statement while making a big, bold statement must be a Parton-trademarked magic trick. During the election season, as fellow Nashville crossover artist Taylor Swift was criticized for staying silent on her choice for president, Parton reached deep into her Dolly joke book and found the right thing to say. “I think no matter if it’s Hillary [Clinton] or Donald Trump, we’re gonna be plagued with PMS either way. Presidential mood swings!” she told The New York Times last June.

Reinvention is easy for her youngest fans—just look at how MySpace profiles turned into Tumblr pages, or the constant new identities for Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Katy Perry. Self-preservation is hard, and Parton is very good at self-preservation, maintaining over the decades a persona defined by butterflies, rhinestones, gay camp, and even some surprising twinges of darkness.