traditionally, one of the perks of turning eighteen years-old for many is the legal ability to get a tattoo. i can't believe how many of my friends actually went out and got one on or the day after their eighteenth birthday. i enjoy tattoos, and admire how they are slowly becoming a bit more culturally acceptable, by which i mean that it's not just prisoners and thugs that have them anymore. i've noted teachers, chefs, business-owners, and other people of pretty high working power who have a tattoo or two, and i think that's awesome. i definitely wouldn't want it to become too normal or integrated into the corporate world, because that would result in many people having the same exact tattoo and the standards of what is considered "professional" to drop. however, i have definitely subtly desired a tattoo since i was sixteen. i have gone through different illustration, text, and placement ideas for long hours at a time, looking through endless forums and blogs online of people who share and talk about their tattoos. miami ink and la ink have become one of my favorite tv shows, which my mom can't stand, but i enjoy seeing people get a tattoo that symbolizes a big part of their lives, especially portraits of their family members or even pets. those are my favorite. my parents have made it abundantly clear that they will indeed leave me financially abandoned and without a home to come to if i ever got one. this is the part that really puts me in a predicament...do i just decide that it's my body, not my parents', and get one despite their threats?...this would involve me feeling guilty of the wrong i would doing to them by getting a tattoo when they're the ones who have supported and provided everything for me for all these years. *sigh*...it's a tough choice.

here are some of my friends' tattoos:







those above are all of Nick's tattoos. he goes by "Nick Edge" by his close friends. he takes a lot of pride in being straight edge, which means that he does not take part in drugs, alcohol, or premiscuous sex. he has the more tattoos than anyone i know.




this is James' tattoo. he got it recently, by the same tattoo artist that Nick gets all of his done by. the artist's name is Ashley Love. she is by far the best tattoo artist locally. her work consists of really clean lines and colors; she specializes in traditional-style tattoos.




Savannah's tattoo of a Daphne and Apollo sculpture. it's a big tattoo, but it turned out looking really special. i prefer black and white tattoos more than colored ones, since the color choices can be iffy and harder to maintain.




on the left is my friend Eli, who is also my best friend's boyfriend. he's into drawing and graphic novels, so he decided to draw his own tattoo. in case you can't quite tell, it's of an octopus invading (for lack of a better word) a man's head. it's unique and i don't think anyone else around has this tattoo. again, i like the black and white better.




i'm pretty sure this is my favorite tattoo out of my friends'. my friend Brandon got this tattoo and as ode to Salvador Dali, who is hands-down one of my favorite, if not favorite artists of all time. the illustration where this elephant is from is titled "the elephants". i have a copy of it in my dorm room.


as you can see, i am vaguely surrounded by people who have really good tattoos. this is part of the reason why i am tempted to get mine so badly. all i want to get is a quote tattooed around my ankle/foot area. i am still trying to decide between these two quotes:

"et incepit fidelis sic permanet" which is latin for "as loyal as she began, so she remains". this quote really represents remembering who i am as a person and always keeping in mind where i come from. i feel that it's really important never to lose your true self for the sake of others, and this quote captures that perfectly.

the other quote is "this is a beautiful way". this quote comes from my favorite poet, e.e. cummings. the original quote is "and if feeling: that if day has to become night - this is a beautiful way" from one of his poems. this quote to me symbolizes the beauty in change. change is inevitable, and if things that seem so perfect and good in my life must change, like the day changes to night, then it should always been seen as a beautiful thing, rather than a mysterious, dark thing. i know this quote will comfort me always when i question why certain changes in my life occur.