Perhaps the most challenging aspect of getting a tattoo, piercing, or other body modification, is how to explain your decision to your parents. Now I am going to begin by saying that you shouldn’t get tattoos before you turn 18 and are no longer considered to be a minor. Once you turn 18, you are considered an adult and have the control to make the permanent decisions for your own body. Yet for many of us, convincing our parents to understand our body modifications is an extremely difficult task.
Parents can range from being extremely supportive of their children getting tattoos, to downright opposition to everything about the body modification world. And while I may love my parents, they have a very hard time accepting my choice to be tattooed. I’ve been met with every reaction from tears to disappointment to anger, yet in the end I know that my parents still love me. Enough about me, here are a few tips to help you persuade your parents to let you express yourself with ink.
The number one way to help convince your parents to let you get a tattoo (or tattoos) is to come about the conversation with maturity, by proving to your parents that you are a smart and responsible adult, capable of making decisions that will affect your body forever. If you act immature when they oppose your argument, there is no way your parents will accept your decision to get a tattoo.
Make sure that you explain how long that you’ve had the idea for your first tattoo. Your parents want to know that this is something that you’ve thought about for a long time. You want them to understand that you’ve thought about how this will affect your future, including a career. Some careers have not evolved to accept tattoos in their workplaces yet and you need to understand that a tattoo could still affect your ability to be hired. The amount of time that a person spends planning their first tattoo varies, yet six months to a year is a safe frame of time. By explaining how much thought that you’ve put into your idea, it will better help your family to accept your decision.
In addition to approaching this situation as an adult, it is imperative that you’ve done your research. They want to know that you know what you are getting yourself into and that means putting a lot of research into what kind of style of tattoo you want, where you want it on your body, and where you want the tattoo done. Researching a tattoo artist is extremely important, because it can ultimately determine whether your tattoo is something you’ll want for the rest of your life or a regret. By putting research into your artist, you are showing to your parents that you have done your homework and that you want to put true works of art on your body.
And finally, give your family some time. Our parents have lived their lives and formed their opinions over decades and sometimes they have difficulty accepting views that oppose their own. Going against your parents views can cause huge obstacles for the entire household and hiding a body modification will only hurt you in the end. Everyone wants to feel accepted and understood by his or her parents and sometimes that means not going over the top with tattoos all at once. By interspersing your tattoos and body modifications over a longer period of time, you give your parents a chance to come to terms with your decisions.
By allowing for open discussions about why you are getting a tattoo, you can only hope that one day your parents will see tattoos in the light that you do. This may be hard for people who want to be tattooed all at once and in the end it is your choice over what you do with your own body. They may not agree in the moment, but in the end you know it is because your parents love you and only want the best for you in the future. But for some, tattoos and body modifications are a part of one’s happy and successful life.