NICE TATTOO!!!

NICE TATTOO!!!

I understand that having tattoo’s you are jut begging people to touch, compliment, and compare tattoos with you and sometimes you really wish they wouldn’t. Sometimes I just wanna shake my head at some of the people here in Dundalk who has pointed at a board on the wall in the parlor and chosen a permanent mark forever because it “looked cool”. All of the tattoo’s I have on my body have spiritual and deep meaning behind them. I have never once pointed to a wall and said “I want that one” and then boasted about a tattoo 5000 other people chose to have as well. I sometimes have grown men and women stop in the tracks when they pass the windows of Love Lips and rush into the store to say they “LOVE MY TATTOO” and then I am subjected to looking at various body parts of people with deformed, faded, or nonsensical tattoo’s of people who wear them badly. They somehow think that by having a tattoo we are “cooler” or have TONS in common with one another because we both have tattoos. Now don’t get me wrong, there are those select people who have amazingly beautiful artwork that they have either designed themselves or have deep meaning and then we have things to talk about but most of the people I come in contact with are not unique. I usually see the skinny white guy who can’t remember why he got the tattoo or the skinny white guy with giant letters scrolled up and down both arms and sadly in most cases those huge letters are their own name and sometimes their last name. As Foamy the Squirrel once said, what is the point of having your name tattooed on yourself?? Do you wake up every day forgetting who you are and the tattoo has to remind you your name is Amy or Brian?  

A perfect example of this would be one of the night I did a double shift and it was probably around 8:00 at night and at the time it was pitch black outside and the only light in the parking lot was a blinking pole light near the road by the store. I noticed a skinny white male and an equally skinny woman walk by and because they walked past the store I didn’t pay much attention to this. I was reading a book when the door jingled and the skinny white man walked in. I noticed right away he was all tattooed up one arm and it went up towards his neck. I said my hello speech and looked back at my book but he came close to the counter so I marked my page and smiled up at him. “Can I help you?”

“Nah, I just came in to look at your tats!”

I was used to people looking at the long vine that wrapped around my left arm and went up and around my back down my chest but because it was late I was a little squeamish about being stared at and he was a little “hoodish” so I said to hide my slight nervousness, “I see you have tats too”

“Yeah! I just got this one touched up” He moved his sleeve and showed me a Mario brothers little green mushroom dude and it was right on his elbow…all I could think was OUCH, that is tender spot. The ink was fresh but it was already fading from the elbow area because of the movements he did daily. He rattled on about how this is his 5^th tattoo this week alone. I blinked at him and said, “Wow….”

He smiled dorky like and said, “Yeah I know! They won’t let me come back until next month cuz I got so many all at once. I guess so they heal and all that”

Eyebrow raised I smiled. All the other tattoo’s he had were not impressive, if I remember correctly there were a few card symbols (like clubs, spades, aces, etc) and a hooded grim reaper. I asked him why he chose those things and he shrugged still smiling like he was King of the World and said proudly, “They looked cool”. There have been many other encounters I can’t seem to recall but none of the artwork was very flattering for the type of person they were.

So far only people I’ve seen with obviously meaningful (to them) tattoos were not the prettiest however. I remember the tattoo’s well because it was a couple that came in. The man looked to be in his early 30’s and the woman in her late 20’s and both were husky white trash looking and the first thing I saw on him was across his Adam’s apple was a woman’s name (obviously the woman next to him) and she had a side neck tattoo of his name. Now I can’t judge this TOO harshly because my girlfriend and I have matching symbol tattoos but our matching tattoo’s are on our chests NOT on the throat. I REALLY hoped that they never break up because I hear tattoo removal hurts worse than getting a tattoo. Yikes.

Speaking of tattoo removal I do remember one story that is fresh in my mind. It was a busy afternoon and I had a few people in the store all at once. After ringing up two people back to back I got to the last customer in line, “Thanks for being patient, it’s not common we have such a long line” I smiled as I turned to look for the DVD’s he brought to the counter.

“Wow, you’re all tatted up, aren’t ya?” He said as I pulled the last DVD from the wall behind the counter.

I smiled as I put the DVD into its respectable case, “Yup”

“How many hours?”

“27 all together for the vine, 7 sittings, my hands took 3 hours total.”

“You got a boyfriend who does them?”

“Nope, I got them all done at different times for different meanings in my life”

“Well that’s really great”

“Thanks, I really don’t like choosing my art from a wall, I’d rather it have a deeper meaning, ya know?”

“Yup, my daughter married a tattoo artist and had tattoos all up one arm and all over her chest.”

“I bet they’re beautiful” I guessed.

“Oh very, but she divorced him and is getting re-married to another guy who wanted her to remove them all.”

WHAT?! Screw that! “Wow, I hope she said no”

He looked at me like I didn’t understand something, “Well I don’t see why it’s a bad idea, I mean her ex husband gave them to her and he doesn’t want to have to look at his work every time he looks at her”

Double standards much??? Also, why would you support her husband vs your daughter? “Well I mean on a pain level, I heard it’s VERY painful to get them removed”

“Oh yeah, she’s gotten most of them removed but she has to keep going back to get them re-removed because right now they just look super faded, she has 12 more sittings before they’re all the way gone.”

OUCH! My heart went out to this poor woman. “Well good luck…Have a great day”

“Thanks!”

Today my lovely followers I had another tattoo WTF moment and I’m kinda glad I hadn’t posted this like I was going to do yesterday. Yesterday was a rough day with a big misunderstanding between me an cooperate and today was bless-fully laid back and I was looking over my newest tarot deck (I am a Tarot and Oracle Reader when I’m not at Love Lips) when the Love Lips door opened and besides the usual jingle the sound of rain caught my attention and I looked up to see an elderly Eastern looking man wearing a faded light brown leather jacket. “Can I help you sir?”

“Ya, do you have place here that does cameras?” He held out a old looking point and shoot camera.

“I’m sorry we do not have a camera place on this strip”

“How ‘bout dis area?”

“I haven’t seen one around this area, maybe the mall close by?”

“Ah, Ok.” He paused and then pointed to my arm. “That is very beautiful, is it washable?” He moved his hand in a washing movement.

“No sir, it’s a real tattoo” I smiled.

“It’s real?” He looked at me like I was lying to him.

“Yes sir” I get this question often because it’s not a dark sleeve it’s just a delicate vine winding up my arm then down my chest and back.

He gave me a Fatherly look and then his eyebrow scrunched together, “Why? You gonna like it 10 years from now? 15 years?”

Seriously? If I’m gonna get it permanently on my skin I’d sure as hell better like it! I am NOT from Dundalk and have more respect for my body than that! “Yes sir, they have special meanings for me”

“Ooookkk” He gave me a look like he wanted to continue to argue about it but then thought better of it, which was good because I didn’t want to have to lay his ass out. I was in no mood to be told how I should live my life from someone who doesn’t know a thing about who I am. He left after that without a word and continued to look around the shopping center because I apparently lied to him about a camera store not being on this strip.

The moral of this blog post? Make sure that when you get another tattoo or get your first tattoo that it is designed just for YOU and that it’s unique and fits into who you are. Artwork should be unique and it should be something that shows the inner beauty we tend to be shy to show.