I got my first tattoo on my 18th birthday. I’ve known I wanted it since I was 12 years old. My mom got her third tattoo the same day. Mine was a black outline of a rose on my right calf. It was bigger than I expected. I wanted it on the inside of my left ankle but was told if I wanted to detail of the design, the tattoo artist would need a bigger canvas. Thus, the decision to have a BIG rose on my calf was decided in a two minute period. I love this tattoo. Flowers, especially roses, make me happy. And now, I have an eternal reminder to always be happy. To not let anything put me down and to always admire the beauty in life.
My grandma wasn’t too happy. She asked me why I felt the need to permanently ink the object onto my skin. I told her it was art and it was special. I then preceded to tell her about the next tattoo I was going to get.
On my left shoulder blade is tattooed the words, “We’re all pretty bizarre.” This is a quote from my favorite movie, “The Breakfast Club.” Now, you may ask yourself, why that quote? Why put it on your body? Like the rose, the quote is a reminder. Nobody is perfect, even if they come off to be. We all have something that makes us weird. The quote is in typewriter font because that is the way it was written in the original script. I want to be a writer and I hope to oneday write a phrase that resonates with someone like this one has affected me.
I have more planned. It’s true what they say — once you get one you want to get more. The point of this is not to tell you about all my ink. I want to destigmatize tattoos. Having tattoos does not automatically make someone a bad person. Tattoos don’t make someone less eligible for a job or more scary to walk by in public. If anything, it separates the passionate people apart from the rest of society. There are people who get stupid tattoos for no reason, but there are also people who put meaning and love into them. Tattoos are a form of art and expression.
These masterpieces are usually not decided on a whim. They’re carefully thought out and take a lot of guts. I didn’t get my tattoos to hide them. My sister has two tattoos that she has strategically placed so they are easy to cover up in a business setting. It works for her and I admire that. Personally, I don’t care. In my opinion, if you’re thinking about getting a tattoo and one of the first things out of your mouth is, “I’m getting it small on (insert easily covered part of body) so I can cover it if I need to.” you should not be getting a tattoo.
Like I said, tattoo’s are about expression. Covering up the way you express yourself doesn’t make sense. I am not less of a human because I have tattoos. I am not a bad person because I have tattoos, and want more. Society shouldn’t penalize those who choose to express themselves through art and ink.