When I was fifteen, my first boyfriend and I got tattooed together. He told me to choose the design and that he didn't want to see it till it had been inked on his body. I toyed with a few ideas that I'm sure seemed good at the time and settled on something I thought was romantic but not entirely, permanently, irreversibly committed -- a heart with our shared initial inside and a string of barbed wire on the outside.
Ah, the 90s!
The boyfriend liked the design once he saw it (on his upper thigh and my lower left abdomen), though he was hurt I hadn't gone whole hog and gotten our names. He went on to get many more tattoos. I stopped at the one. I just never saw another one I liked.
Until a couple of weeks ago at church. This girl has the words "Via, Veritas, Vita" in an awesome, early-letterpress looking font on her inner wrist. She's maybe twenty-one. That's what I should've had, I told her, a tattoo you grow into, not out of.
Last weekend, the kids and I went for ice cream with my friend Candise and her ten-year-old daughter. Her daughter wants a tattoo. "Don't do it," I said.
"Why?"
"I'll show you why when we stop the car."
I got out on the sidewalk and pulled up my shirt. The ten-year-old looked at the ravages of twin pregnancy on a full-color tattoo and grimaced.
"It's really not that bad," Candise offered kindly, and her daughter tossed off: "Anyway, I wouldn't get one on my stomach. I'd get one on my ankle."
"I've never seen a tattoo anywhere on someone's body that you'd still want in fifteen years, honey," I said.
Then I remembered.
"Well, one." And I told her about it.
Your story is a cautionary tale to share with my teen daughters. I've discouraged them from considering tattoos due to their permanence and used their shifting interests as examples: "Remember when you would have done anything to get a ticket to the Hannah Montana concert?" They nodded. "There was a time when you would have loved a Hannah Montana tattoo, but what would you think about that now?" They grimaced. "I know it seems impossible, but at various points in your life you'll be convinced you will NEVER change your mind about a certain interest or passion or music or author or boy...but most likely you will, and you won't want a permanent record of it on your skin."
ReplyDeleteA few exceptions: A friend of mine has an attractive vine that winds around her ankle. I thought that was tasteful and attractive. I like the one you saw on the young woman at church. I'm older and will never get a tattoo by choice at this point, but would consider a small Huguenot Cross.
What a smart way to set it up for your daughters! If you ever get desperate, just let me know and I'll send you some jpgs that will scare them straight!
ReplyDeleteThe Huguenot cross is such a cool idea!