The story of my first tattoo is not an exciting one: no one was drunk, nothing was misspelled, and it didn't happen in jail.
I was 21 years old, living away from my parents for the first time, in college in New York. I had wanted a tattoo since I was 16 but waited for 5 years for fear that I would change my mind, that it would hurt, that I would get a disease, or that it would anger my parents.
As a 21-year-old, I thought I was old enough to make this decision for myself. I got my tattoo (an all-black silhouette of a crow on my right shoulder) at a small parlor, by this very attractive lady who came in carrying her child. She put her little boy in a nearby chair, put on some gloves and took me on my first tattoo experience.
I was hooked from the minute I got up from the chair. Tattoos can represent a wide range of experiences, emotions and reasoning.
Mine was a product of my love for the animal, its representation in different myths throughout ancient and modern cultures, and it was COOL!
I am a definite fan of tattooing in general. However, I don't really understand the fad of getting Celtic knots when you're not Irish, or pictures of Pooh, or flowers/butterflies just for the heck of it.
A tattoo should mean something, at least in my opinion.
Something I didn't expect from getting a tattoo was how it brought me into a completely different community than I was in before. People with tattoos share a bond, even if they have no other similarities. It's a bond of pain, of endurance and permanence that speaks to the depth of feeling that you have for something or someone, except if that something is Pooh or Tweety Bird. Sorry, those tattoos do not apply to this situation.
I was pretty scared my tattoo would get messed up, but good tattoo artists are really professional people. They take their art seriously, both as a passion and a business.
I did a lot of research before I got my tattoo, so I could pick the right place, know the right price and take care of my new purchase with care so it would last a long time. By the way, be sure to tip your tattoo artist!
My tattoo is only the first of several I intend to get. It's been 6 years since I got my crow, so it's time to refresh it with some more black ink and to place another memento of my life on my body.
This time, I'll be getting two knitting needles on my left calf. The hobby has changed my life, so why not? Knitters also share a bond of pain and endurance. And both knitting and tattooing is done with needles - it's a perfect match.
Personally, I can't wait to get it, for people to see it, and remember as vividly as the first time, the first stroke all the way to the last.
I gave a lot of thought and consideration to my first tattoo, as I will also give to my future tattoos.
An older friend of mine got a tattoo on her left breast. Her tattoo has proven to me something that I always instinctively knew... Don't put a tattoo on something that will sag when you get older. ;-) If you do, chances are that ten or twenty years down the road, your tattoo will not look as awesome as it does right now.
Another thing I don't get is the people who put a name of a boyfriend or girlfriend on their body. Maybe they believe that somehow by permanently affixing someone's name to their body will help encourage a more permanent relationship with their significant other, but doing so may also reflect the uncertainty in the relationship rather than its permanence.
Some tattoos might seem wise at the time of the inking, but down the road, some tattoos are best removed or covered over.
All I am saying is that if you get inked, make a wise decision about what tattoo you should get and where you want to put your tattoo. If you make these decisions willy-nilly, the tattooing decision you make today, could be something you regret for a long time to come.