“You got a tattoo?” “You know it’s permanent, right?” “What if you regret it?”
These are just a few of the questions I’ve gotten since I made the choice to go under the needle. What started as a trip to the tattoo shop with a friend last year became an obsession for me. She came to New York over the break to get a special vegan tattoo and her experience encouraged me to get one. I’d always toyed with the idea of a tattoo, but thought maybe I was too chicken to get one because, yes, it does hurt. However, I knew that I wanted one. This became concrete for me once I started missing the Inkbox tattoo I got for my birthday, feeling sad once it finally disappeared. But, I didn’t want this to be something that I might regret later.
I spent the entire summer obsessing over what I wanted and how to make it look perfect for me. I had learned over past visits to shops that you can go with a picture you found online and get that exact image tattooed. I thought that idea might be the best option for me considering I didn’t want to go to an artist, tell them my idea and have them come up with something I didn’t love, so I went the safer route because I wanted a simple one line drawing of a quill, to represent my love of writing.
*Tip for anyone thinking of getting a tattoo: don’t type in the word “quill” into Tumblr unless you want Guardians of the Galaxy fan art for your tattoo.
After months of looking for the right image, the image stuck with me, I could already see it on my skin. I didn’t want to rush into things though; I wanted to research the best place to get inked. “How about your tattoo be your Christmas gift?” my dad’s best friend asked. She had become tattoo obsessed when she went to get one with her mother and sister. This woman was hell-bent on helping me get a tattoo. So on the coldest day in January, I walked in to get my wrist scraped. Although it was very much as painful as I thought it would be, I walked out beaming because I knew my quill would forever be there.
When I met up with my father, after getting the tattoo, I realized that it wasn’t just for me but for my father as well. We both grew up loving to write, but he never got to have the chance to pursue writing. My body, in a sense, became the dedication page of a novel, “To Dad, with Love.” So here’s to having a passion for writing and following dreams. Yes, I got a tattoo, I know it’s permanent, and I will never regret it.