Fast forward 8 months. Her and I are about to go to our old school, to see friends, party, and relive our college days for a weekend. And she happens to think that this would be the ideal time to get our tattoos. I really want to, butI have two resonating doubts in my mind about permanently inking my body.
#1- If i get it with someone, and we get the same thing, it is, by default, a friendship tattoo. Perhaps the meaning of the tattoos don't necessarily mean friendship, and in this case, ours don't. But regardless, if something were to ever happen, and for whatever reason things didn't work out and we went our separate ways in life, I would forever be reminded of it with this tattoo. Now, don't get my wrong, I have absolutely no intention of breaking up with my best friend. She is a god sent in my life, and living without her doesn't seem like something I could do without completely losing my marbles. I love her, and I would like to think that even if we had the ugliest falling out, I would still love her. But alas, shit happens, life is a curvy bumpy road, and you truly never know what will happen next. Fuck, I don't even know what I'm having for lunch.
#2- Since this blog is about the anxiety of getting older, I feel it pertinent that I pose the obvious question(s). Will this shit look absolutely horrid on my old sagging body in about 50 years? (God willing I make it that long. My bet is that I probably won't, and that's better for all parties involved, but still). Will I regret what I got? Will it seem silly, and something that I will spend the rest of my life wishing I could take back?
I know this is pretty contradictory, since I mostly lament about the fact that life is short, and we are all getting old way too quickly. But when you have a hideous tattoo of a lightning rod across your chest with the name BUBBA underneath it, I imagine life will start to ruthlessly drag on. Seconds will feel like minutes, minutes will feel like hours, etc.
That, for the record, is not what I was planning on getting for a tattoo. But still. You see my point.
Should I just accept the fact, that I am 22 and I should know better than to ink my body? I wanted to get a tattoo when I was 18. It was going to be lyrics from my favorite band at the time, My Chemical Romance. I still enjoy their music sometimes, but I'm obviously not as obsessed with them as I used to be. Besides, MCR gives me flashbacks to a time in my life where I wouldn't even recognize the person I was if she were standing in front of me right now. That's how far removed you can be from yourself in 4 short, but significant years. I feel like my mind, my opinions, my aspirations, my dreams, my fantasies, my whole being for that matter is undergoing constant development. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it simply is what it is. But if I get a tattoo at 22, whose to say I won't regret it when I'm 26? Whose to say that this permanent ink on my body will or won't have little, or no meaning at all to me?
To ink or not to ink...that is the question....
Happy Friday everyone, try not to drink yourselves into a submissive state this weekend. You're old now, it just looks trashy.
...That reminds me, I need to stop at the liquor store after work.
i have been having discussions with a lot of my friends about tattoos recently because i am going to get one soon, and i've been really surprised by their reactions about certain things. i've always been kind of confused about the social stigma and all the other hooplah (people having an issue with spending a lot of money on them, etc.) regarding tattoos because so many people in my family have them, and most have had them since i was a small child, so it's just been part of my life for as long as i can remember. because of this, i've never perceived tattoos as a weird thing, or a "will i still want this when i'm older?" thing, because, for, instance, my stepmom has about 15 tattoos (scattered over her body in different places, not like, sleeves), and has had a lot of tattoos for as long as i've known her, so i've always just thought of them as part of her body, and i always imagined her growing old with them. i guess it's kind of hard to picture your parents as old people in general, but since i always knew she'd still have her tattoos when she was old, it never weirded me out in that way. i've also watched a lot of documentaries and tv shows about tattooing, and have seen 75 year old-ish women get tattooed on some of them and it hasn't ever struck me as weird, because they share their stories of why they're getting tattooed, and it's pretty heartwarming and adorable in most cases.
ReplyDeleteas for the friendship tattoo reminder issue, i don't know about your personal situation, but for me, if i was going to get a tattoo like that with someone who i knew i'd still really care about even if we had a falling out and never spoke again, i would still want the tattoo as a reminder of the positive memories i had with that person (because there must have been positive enough memories to get the tattoo in the first place). this happens a lot with love-related tattoos and wedding ring tattoos. for instance, johnny depp has a tattoo that says "winona forever", from when he was with winona ryder. people ask him in interviews about it frequently, and he always says that he doesn't regret getting it and that he is still friends with her, so it's just a positive memory of the time in their life when they were happy and in love. his wife is cool with it too, because she's friends with her as well. two of my friends, who had been married for 7 and a half years, recently split up, and they have their wedding rings tattooed. i haven't spoken to them about this, but, from knowing their personalities and how close they are with each other as friends and band mates regardless of their romantic connection, i think they probably feel the same way about having those tattoos even after they're no longer married.
so, here's my advice: think about the tattoo you want to get. think about it for a while (i've been thinking about mine for over a year now, and some other ones i want in the future for multiple years) and decide if it really means enough to you to have it forever. make sure you research shops & artists. look at their portfolios and choose one that specializes in the type of work you want to have done, or that does really good work in general, so you know that they'll do a good job [here's a plug - my brother's friend dave bennett works at inflicting ink in portsmouth, ri, and his work is amazing. he does all my brother's and my stepmom's tattoos and i'm probably going to go to him to have mine done. you should check him out if you're planning on getting tattooed in the ri area.] if you decide that you really want the tattoo - go for it. if later in life, you decide you don't want it anymore, there are many new methods of tattoo removal that are a lot more easy and effective than they used to be. also, you can have more work done to cover up the tattoo and incorporate it into a new design.
*sigh*
anyway, there's my two cents. hope it helps :p
get IT ... GET IT!!!!!! WE "ADULTS" STILL PEER PRESSURE HAHAHAHAHA JUST MAKE SURE IS A GOOD EXPERIENCED TATTOO ARTIST !
ReplyDelete