Plenty of celebrities have tattoos, from Selena Gomez’s inspiring semicolon to Post Malone’s face tattoos. They are a way to express yourself, whether it is a moment of spontaneity or planned out months in advance. Everyone’s reasons for getting tattoos are different, here are some people’s stories.
The Tattoo from the RV’s Couch
“My first tattoo is on my leg and it is of a flower. I grew up in New Mexico before I moved to PA, and one of my friends there showed me how to draw this flower. So after that, I would just draw the same exact thing over and over again, whenever I had free time. Whenever you put your name on something or signed it, that would be my thing. I got it when I was 16. I told my mom I wanted a tattoo, and my mom was like ‘okay we got this.’ My mom had a friend whose son knew how to tattoo so we had the equipment but not the where. So we lived like 2 hrs from each other, but they had an RV. So they parked their RV in a Walmart or a similar location and me and my mom met them there. I sat down on the couch on the RV and got the tattoo on my thigh.” – Olivia
(Photo taken by Olivia)
The Boy with the Bike Tattoo
“It’s a bicycle. Specifically, it is a road bike. This is silly, but it is based off of the keychain that I have my house keys on. I got it in 2016 when I was 19. I went with my cousin who has a lot of tattoos in Cape Cod. My aunt got a tattoo at the same time, a different one, and three cousins and my sister were there when I got it. My grandmother almost dropped dead when she saw it. ” -Robert
(Photo taken by Emily Cotter)
Time Capsule Tattoo
“I have a shooting star on my left upper back. It’s for a song that my dad used to sing to my sisters and I when we were young. I got it in Easton when I was 18. My parents didn’t know about it until after I got it.” Amanda
(Image taken by Emily Cotter)
Yer a Tattoo, Harry
“I got mine done this summer. I was going home for the weekend and had been thinking about getting a tattoo for a while, so I just made an appointment and did it. I looked up places on Yelp, then stalked their Instagram profiles before deciding on where to go. I actually only told my parents the night before I was getting it and they thought I was joking. It is a small lightning bolt on my wrist which I love so much. One, because lightning is cool. Two, because I’m a huge Harry Potter fan.” – Emily
Tattoos can represent a loving family memory, a favorite hobby or book, or even a special moment in time. Your first tattoo doesn’t even have to mean something special, you could just get a dolphin because you think they’re awesome, or a cactus because you can. Whether or not your tattoo leads to more, or if your first tattoo is your last tattoo, it will stay with you forever.