So I’m a young female with tattoos, and *gasp* not promiscuous. I know. It’s incredible. But in all seriousness even in the 21st century I get some pretty heavy judgments for it. In fact I almost lost/did lose 2 boyfriends largely in part of my body modification (One because he hated them and found out I wanted tattoos, the other wasn’t a fan of tattoos but tolerated mine because mine are great, but his parents hate them and so is most likely a very large factor in why they made him break up with me). I am also told by my friends how their parents hate them, some family members think I should stop getting them, I’m told how it affects my professionalism, and how people (especially males apparently) will view me as being some sort of scandalous person, cause like I care. So let us look at what tattoos mean to me and why they don’t suck.
They are permanent reminders of very personal things.
So as of right now I have 5 tattoos (looking to get 1-2 more when I’m not a broke college student). I have an autism awareness puzzle piece on my one arm for my cousin with autism because he’s great and I love him and autism is very misunderstood and needs to be talked about. I also have a Star of David on my other arm with my great grandmothers initials under it and her concentration camp numbers on top. My great grandmother passed away my senior year of high school and was the strongest and kindest person I knew and I still miss her all the time and hate myself for not visiting her more and there is so much hate in this world and so I got the tattoo to remember her and to use it as a conversation piece because when we forget the evils of genocide we only ensure that it will happen again. I have a moon on my chest that I got with someone who was a very good friend of mine and even though we no longer talk I am still rooting for her and hoping that all goes well in her life and the moon is a very spiritual thing for me and it represents a lot of my personality traits. An anchor on my ankle that I got with a friend who I am still very good friends with, we’ve known each other since kindergarten and we are both in college now and it symbolizes that no matter how far apart we are and no matter what may be happening in our lives we’re still tethered or “anchored” to one another. Finally I have a phoenix that kind of takes up most of my torso and it is a work in progress so it will eventually be even bigger. That I got in reaction to my vow to never self-harm again, something that I struggled with since middle school. It symbolizes the “death” of my relationship with depression and my “rebirth” with a healthier mentality. It is still a struggle all of the time but having this reminder always puts me back on track (plus I’m pretty sure the tattoo artist doing it would kill me if I ruined it in any way through self-harm).
It does not make you less of a professional
I didn’t start getting tattoos until after I graduated high school, while in high school I was a member of the National Honors Society, involved with Chemistry Club (as treasurer and VP), part of the American Chemical Society, I did theatre, chorus, band, and graduated with the equivalent of a 4.0 (my school only did 100 pt scale, but I graduated with a 98%). Now I’m in college and 5 tattoos later and I’m in All-College Honors, part of Canisius Ambassadors for Conservation, part of Canisius Zoological Society, have yet to take less than 16 credit hours per semester (my school caps at 18), all while holding down 2 jobs (this being one), and over the summer I worked 2 different internships revolving around my major. So it seems pretty clear to me that simply putting ink into my skin didn’t just poof all of my professionalism and drive to succeed away. If a kid is driven before tattoos, chances are they will still be driven afterwards and if a kid is lazy before tattoos, tattoos aren’t going to magically change that.
They can look pretty damn awesome
Sure we’ve all seen a couple badly done tattoos, but that isn’t the majority, and even a lot of the bad ones can be made to look good. Some of the most beautiful tattoos I’ve seen have been cover ups and if your body is your temple who is to say that you can’t decorate it however you see fit??
They can give you confidence
So growing up I was not really the cutest lil’ nugget, puberty really changed my life, and so I’ve had to deal with some bullying problems in my youth. That led to a lot of self-esteem issues and some of the self-hatred I write about in my other articles (if you haven’t yet, check them out). So something about tattoos is after you’ve had them for a while you kind of forget that you have them, you just look in the mirror and surprise, you have a tattoo. For me that’s a wonderful moment. I look at the places I have my tattoos and I’m just filled with immense love for them. I feel the most beautiful when I can see them, and every time is just like the first time I looked in the mirror after getting them. I can’t fully express the warm feeling I get when I look at my tattoos, it’s the time I feel the most love for myself, a gift given to me by some pretty awesome artists and I thank you guys (For anyone interested I got 2 tattoos from a place called Flash Effects in Bristol, PA from Carl and one tattoo from Roadhouse Tattoos in Holland, NY from Tattoo Joe, they’re really awesome guys, check them out).
*Yes all of these tattoos are mine, although one is not finished*
