I have formed a new addiction with social and lifelong consequences, one that will either be looked down upon by someone like my estranged mother or with awe by cigarette-wielding boys and men hanging who like getting shaved, poked, and have blood drawn simply for the art of self-expression.
The new addiction I have is not something I smoke. I'd never consider putting finger to mouth and inhaling, despite how cool some people believe they look with cigarettes, nor is it something I eat, despite my increased appetite for more of this newfound source of entertainment and fun.
I have an addiction to tattoos, even though I only have two - if I am allowed to label initials and a name across either arm as such.
Many years ago, during my initiation into the real, non-sheltered world as a university student, I was introduced to tattoos for the fist time in my life by a roommate bearing one on his upper right arm. He had it done at a local parlour next to a pool hall together with two other defensive linemen from the football team to which he had pledged his allegiance. It was supposed to be something about solidarity, football, and that "chicks" dug it. They were cool, but nothing I'd do to myself no matter what.
Football ended when the final down was played and his scholarship expired, and he went on to bigger things in life. What remained from his days as a Division II football player, on a team that never made national news in the United States, was the dark ink that was permanently layered into his arm. It was a cool idea then, but he'd have a hard time today getting anyone to really show interest in it.
Or would he?
Tattooing is as much for the artists demonstrating their superior (and sometimes inferior) creative and tracing skills, as it is of those who put them on their bodies — yours truly, notwithstanding — using words, names, symbols, and picture art to reveal a story about respective episodes of their lives.
What started off as a one-off for my old roommate continued on as chapter one of his life. He has since added several other chapters to the book that is his life: one on marriage, one on childbearing, and one on loss of loved ones. He's not alone in his quest to tell his story like it is: in pictures and words, and by artists who know how to capture the moment.
Article comments
1 - Katy
Cool dude. I have an outstretched hand with a glass covering the palm, and an eye inside of the glass on my lower back.
Katy
Twickenham, UK
2 - AJ
I have a tattoo of a dragon on my right bicep. It is to depict my spirit, free to fly and majestic in their nobility :)
I want to get another tattoo on the other arm. Only I'm not sure what right now. And since I am single, nothing like the name of a wife or children ;)
3 - Christopher Rose
I'm not opposed to people having tattoos but personally I wouldn't have one, just as I wouldn't wear the same clothes every day for the rest of my life.
The thing that does hack me off a bit is some of the pretentious nonsense uttered by devotees. Take AJ for example; I would have thought a dragon tattoo depicted a gullible spirit that believed in non-existent myths myself! lol
4 - Courtney
This was what I was told while getting my first tattoo ~ "Once you get one you'll get another and another". During which I cried and cried, now look at me I have six. Every one of mine are sentimental, one chest piece (black and grey pin-up drawn my way so its original) which represents the inner (skinny) me. Two small shoulder pieces ( one has my cat's name with two small paw prints I've had her for 17 years now and still counting ~ the other is a butterfly with the word tease under it for "I am an eternal tease") I have a medium lower back piece (a tramp stamp if you will ~ tribal with a picture of a cat in the middle an I have a picture of my cat sitting this way and we made her a stix figure on my back) then a have a tiny ankle tat of a pair of red lips me and my best friend have these so were forever bonded. And finally I have 3 tiny feet prints on the top of my foot 2 of the feet prints say daddy's girl and this is where I used to stand on my daddy's feet and dance with him. So not all work is meaningless.
5 - Jon
I, like the author, have my initials in old english, but on my left arm...on the entire face of my right arm is a modified illustration of the cover of the movie El Mariachi to appear as my dad in his rememberance after dying last year when i was only 18...and as Courtney claimed, i definitely want more...already the next 3 planned out, including "See Me Through This" across my upper back for the on-off rough times since 2004, the Superman S on my chest for my strength physically and mentally, but only since my last name also starts with an S
6 - Dawn
I got my first when I was 18. The artist was actually trying to talk me out of it. He told me that I would get addicted and he didn't want me to cover my whole body with tattoos. Weird huh? To listen to someone who is covered from head to toe with ink tell you to think about it. He repeatedly asked me if I was sure I wanted it, the whole time, even after he flipped the switch on the gun and the needle was going. Right as he was about to start, cm from my leg, he asked again. I was already nervous enough. But I sucked it up and said yes, do it. In some ways, I wish I would have listened to him. Not because I regret having a tattoo, but because his worked sucked. I plan on lots more tattoos, but I will be sure to be more selective in the artist I pick to do them.
7 - Ben
I currently have seven that all have personal meanings to me. My first on I got was my family motto in Latin, which translates into "I have fought and conquered", on my right arm, Then right below that I have my second one which is a Celtic knotwork dragon, which is for my Irish family roots. My third one is a creature on my left leg which I call my Gremlin, which is to remeber my grandfather who died when i was seven. My fourth one is on my right arm and was designed by a friend of my who has done almost all my ink so far, which is of a swallow, rose, and a banner that reads "True Love", which was a wedding present. My fifth and sixth ones are on my left shoulder blabe pretty much and are of a drawing my grandfather used to draw and I found about the last little drawing he did before he pasted and had that inked on me. And the other one is a drawing that my wife does. Both of those I have never seen anywhere else. In fact no can tell me for sure what my grandfathers drawing is of for sure. And my seventh one is of my daughters footprints, the ones that were taken at the hospitial with her name under them.