Can I see your tattoo? How much was it?
Yes, because I love showing off my tattoo. It’s a small one, and cost around 60 dollars.I’m a huge Star Wars fan so I wanted my first tattoo to be Star Wars related. Plus I got it on my birthday and my older sister has a matching one.
Why do you have tattoos?
I have 14 tattoos total (with another being done this weekend), and each one of them represents something in my life as I am using my tattoos as a diary. The image may not directly depict what the meaning is, or symbolize it in anyway, but the tattoo was done to mark something significant to me. None of mine were because the design looked cool at the moment, or because I just wanted them. A lot of thought was put into each design and was picked out a year or more before it was ever put into my skin. When asked why I have my tattoos, or asked about a specific one, I can tell everything that was going on when I decided to get it, the significance of it, who waws there, who did it, the date, why I picked the image, and why it meant something then and still means something now. I got my first one at 18, and didnt get another until 3 years later and it was a desing that I had picked out years before, and when I had surgery and was freed from a ton of pain, I decided to use thta particular design to symbolize that freedom...it is an Amy Brown print of a dragon sleeping on the moon...which is how I felt at the time, free, relaxed, and strong.
What do you think of a father who tattoos his daughters name over his chest? Do you think it's sweet?
I have my kids names tattooed on my arm. I don't have any good pictures of it and I'm not in a place to take one now, but it's each of their first and middle names; the names I gave them. They may change last names through marriage or their first or middle by choice, but these are the names I gave them at birth, when I loved them before I even knew the people they would grow into. They're 15, 18, and 21 now.It's the only tattoo I have, I designed it myself (it took me 4 years to settle on the design, and I had another kid while I was still designing it), and I spent months researching tattoo artists to find the right one to do the work. It's telling that I never even considered putting my exes name in the tattoo. After my 3rd kid I had a vasectomy, having decided that 3 was enough, so I could finalize the design without worry of having to add more names. 8-pI'm getting married soon, having been divorced almost 12 years ago, to a woman I've been with for almost 10 years. I've helped her raise her two kids from toddlers to middle and high school, and they look to me as a dad. After we're married, I will most likely get a similar tattoo with their names on the other arm. We're also getting our rings tattooed on instead of buying a physical ring.So all the tattoos I have and ever plan to have are about my family. It's the only reason I can think of that is worth permanently marking my body for. I'll admit, a big tattoo across the chest seems a bit... flamboyant. I opted for something smaller and more delicate, but that may just be a difference in personalities.If I remember I'll take a picture of my tattoo and add it to this post.EDITThe angle makes my arm look like it's shaped weird, but that's the best I could do. The text is their first and middle names in an old runic script (no, it's not dwarvish or anything like that, it's a real ancient language). It's about 15 years old, so the lines aren't as sharp as they used to be, but I promise the lines are straighter than they look in the picture. I'll see if I can get a picture of the underside, it's a large knot that ties the 3 bands together (near my heart).EDIT 2The underside is a knot that ties the 3 bands together. I didn't have a plan for it when I went in, the tattoo artist free-handed it. That's another reason it's important to pick the right artist.