I got my first tattoo when I turned 21 years old. I designed it myself as a stylized “G” for Gary, and went with my sister (as I always did when I had to do something scary). The whole process was sort of painful, but not enough to make me cry like a little bitch. I didn’t get tetanus, I didn’t die, and I don’t really regret it. In fact, I plan to get a few more in the coming years. You hear a lot of people talk about their tattoos with regret, and if your particular piece of body art is either a tramp stamp, or a dolphin swimming through anything then yes, feel free to regret it. My advice for getting a tattoo is as follows:
Get something meaningful, but wait until you are old enough for something meaningful to have happened to you. If you helped save a dolphin when you were 10 years old and the experience had profound effects on you, then a dolphin is acceptable. If you are getting a dolphin because your Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper featured one, you might want to rethink your decision, and perhaps your life.
Don’t be afraid of what it will look like when you look old. People always use the excuse that they don’t want their tattoos to wrinkle and sag because it will look stupid when they age. What exactly are these people planning to look like when they are 90? It doesn’t matter what your tattoo looks like, the rest of you probably isn’t going to look so good when you are old, either. So carpe diem when it comes to that argument.
Don’t tell me your body is a temple and that you don’t want to deface it when you just blew someone in an alleyway last night. So many people think of their body as some kind of holy vessel, but I see mine as a method of expression. Every day we express ourselves with our bodies whether we are making art or making love. If something is important enough to you to remember forever, then giving yourself some beautiful body art to remind you of it seems like a nice gesture.
Body art, like anything else is subjective. No matter what you get or do, some people will like it, and some people won’t. At the end of the day you are the person who is going to see you naked every day. If you want to spiff up your skin a little with some embellishment, go for it.
Just stay away from tramp stamps. There is literally no better piece of advice I could give you.
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