Since childhood, I have always been around people, most of them being family members, who have tattoos and body modifications. Whether it be my uncle who is almost completely covered in tattoos or my mom who has a few scattered on her arms and legs, I have never been a stranger to body art.
Having seen most of my family with this art on their bodies at such a young age, it was never would I get tattoos one day and more of a when would I get my tattoos.
But at one point in my life, I felt myself begin to doubt if I ever would get tattoos. In school, they tell you that you shouldn’t get them because, in professional settings, body art, and body modifications have always been considered unprofessional. They tell you it hurts so bad, why would you want to be put through that pain. They tell you that art is going to be on your body for the rest of your life, do you really want to be an old lady with tattoos like that? How do you know that you’ll still like this in the future, what if you begin to hate the tattoo?
In my head, I think, well I would just get tattoo removal surgery, but at one point, I found myself listening to everyone else’s opinions about the possible tattoos I may or may not get in the future, and found myself in a position where I almost didn’t want to get tattoos. They’re right, what if I work in an office and I get in trouble for having tattoos. Why go through all of that trouble dressing to cover them up or putting on makeup to conceal them, it’d be better to just not have them in the long run. In the back of my mind, my love for body art has never subsided, but the thoughts of everyone else made it that much harder for me to actually pick something I wanted on my body or even just if I wanted tattoos in general.
Upon entering college, and having the newfound freedom and the money to actually pay for a tattoo (and being of age, as the age to get a tattoo in California is 18), I began to care less about what other people thought and just thought about how badly I wanted a tattoo.
If getting a tattoo is something that I want so badly, then I should find a workplace that would allow this self-expression, find a professional setting that wouldn’t make me hide it. So what if I am an old lady with tattoos, I’ll reflect on my youth by seeing the tattoos I got, remembering the moments and experiences around the time I got that tattoo.
Now the biggest problem I had with my tattoo journey was the question: What do I even want as a tattoo? For so long, I thought that it was necessary to have meaning behind every single tattoo that a person may get, but that’s just exhausting. Having to just put so much meaning, when there really could be no meaning and just be something you enjoy. My first tattoo, while I knew what I wanted, I never really thought about the meaning behind them. I got butterflies on my shoulders, somewhat collarbone area. While later, I was able to apply the meaning of being for my grandpa, as culturally and in my family, it is a common belief that your loved ones who have passed reincarnate as butterflies, I originally never meant to put this meaning behind my tattoo. Honestly, I just liked the way the butterflies would look. But the initial step of getting tattoos doesn’t have to be about thinking about some important meaning that you can tell other people, because why should people care about why you got something on your body, it’s yours. After I had gotten my butterfly tattoos, it wasn’t even but a few weeks later that I impulsive decided I wanted a moon tattoo, went to a shop without an appointment and got it the same day I thought about it. Your tattoos are special to you and they don’t always have to have this deep symbolism and personal meaning, just take the chance, because tattoos are so beautiful in their own right, and being able to have beautiful art on me, especially if they make me feel better about myself and my body, should be enough reason to get them.