Decorating the Walls

As you know from reading...well...anything on this blog, I'm a mommy. What you might not know is that I'm a tattooed mommy.

I have an aunt who has not always been kind to me. When I got my first tattoo, this aunt said to me, "Well, honey, I don't see any problem with it. I mean, when you look like you do, might as well decorate the walls, if you've got to live in a house like that!" I have since gotten five more tattoos. I worried about the religious significance of them and spoke to a man I consider one of my ministers. He told me that as long as I put no more emphasis on them than decoration, I'm fine - I don't treat them as objects of worship or anything like that; they're there as tokens of my past, a way to sort of wear my heart on my sleeve, literally. That's all, nothing more. Spiritually, I'm just fine with my tattoos. People wonder why I would "do something like that" to myself, and here's why. To me, tattoos are art. Art you can wear and carry with you. Art that someone took time to create and make permanent on your body. That is why I like tattoos - they're a unique expression of my personality and an expression of an artist's talent.

Now, I've got (technically) six tattoos. I have an infinity symbol on my stomach, a communicator from Star Trek: The Next Generation on the other side of my stomach (which was originally a Superman shield, done badly, with the colors reversed), a "tramp stamp" that is a tribal design that looks like a heart in the center, at the top of my back below my collar I have "The pen is mightier than the sword" in one of Tolkien's Elven languages, and I have a female angel on my right outer thigh that's about 4" wide by about 6" tall. I'd love to have another couple - I'd like to have one on my left outer thigh that commemorates the birth of my son, and I'd like to have a full-back piece one of these days, then I think I'm done...maybe.

People do look at me strange. People wonder if I'm some sort of freak or drug user or something like that. I discount people like this off-hand. They don't take the time or care to ask me about my life or about my tattoos. Then there are the people who think I'm "evil" because I wear them. I discount these people, too. They've made the same shallow, snap judgment about me that the first group made. They either aren't interested enough or don't care to find out the real story. The next group of the people are the ones that are genuinely interested in what my tattoos are, and ask questions. These people I like, because anyone who knows me knows that I love talking ink. I'll tell you where the best place to get tattoos are, I'll tell you what to look for in a shop, I'll tell you about placement and choosing a design that you'll be happy with - I've done a lot of research into the subject over the years, and I'm always ready to share my knowledge with anyone.

But anyway...don't assume that stuff about people who wear tattoos. Don't assume they were following some flippant, fleeting trend and "made a mistake" and got a tattoo. Don't think the worst about someone because they wear ink proudly. If you're curious, ask. Chances are, they're like me, eager to talk about them and tell you their story.