It was her 18th birthday. She had been waiting months for this day. Her fists clenched tight, her knuckles ghostly white, she could not sit still. Any moment she would walk into the tiny room, lay down on the chair, and the needle would start to buzz.
As legal adults most seniors are finally allowed to do things on their own. Vote, buy tobacco products, spray paint, Sharpies, leave home, drive themselves to the D.M.V., and the list goes on and on. One of the most anticipated though, is getting a tattoo. And some of those tattoos have a really good story to go with.
Senior Katie Black has three.
“I have “faith” on my wrist, a cross on my hands, and a dream catcher on my rib cage,” she said.
Senior Shannon Miles went to “A Different Drummer” the day of her birthday. “Right after school a few of my friends and I drove to the tattoo shop and met up with some of my family,” she said. “because I didn’t schedule an appointment the guy said it would be a few hours before I could go in, which only made it harder because by then my nerves had multiplied.”
While the pain of the needle contacting your skin is hard. Some say hardest part of getting a tattoo is choosing what will go on your body for the rest of your life. To others it’s the easiest part because it means something deeper.
“I wanted mine for a good three or four years,” senior John Barton said. “In memory of my great grandmother I got a cardinal, her favorite bird.”
Miles’ tattoo is also in memory of someone.
“It was my mother’s favorite flower a Plumeria,” she said.
Senior Katie Black’s is in memory of the loved ones that have passed away and of the person she used to be.
“I got the dream catcher because my grandmother had them all over the house. She was my best friend,” she said. “When she passed away I swore I’d get something for her. So far I have three feathers on it, one for her, another for one of my best friends that passed away in an accident Justin, and the last for the old ‘me’ that’s gone. Feathers represent wisdom, and each person has taught me a life lesson I use daily.”
While the tattoo is important the placing of your tattoo is also very essential.
“I just wanted to put it somewhere I thought it would hurt so I could see what it was really like,” Barton said.
For others it was for future reasons like their careers.
“I got them on my ribs, because of theater in college,” Black said.
Black also tells that the placing of her tattoos are more for just her.
“As important as these are to me, they are for me,” she said. “And I don’t want everything I’ve worked for to be tampered with because of something I had control over.”