Get inked!

In two days, my sister turns 18. Despite only being two and a bit years older, I feel like the over-protective parent. So when she told me she was getting herself a birthday present I wouldn’t particularly like, I panicked. What is this present? A tattoo.

See, this is where the real hypocrisy lies. Not only do I have a tattoo, the impetus for it was a dare. So, rationally, she’s doing better than I was.

The story behind my tattoo is a pretty unconventional one. My roommate and I both took economics in first year; and despite being diligent students, we sometimes (often) doodled in lectures. She, along with some other friends, bet money and a naked streak down Hope Street that I’d never go through with the tattoo. It was so unlike me that they assumed it was a safe bet.

What they didn’t know was that I have this rebellious tick. Someone says I’d never do something, and the next thing you know, I feel a compulsion to do it. Summer came and went, and I got my roommate’s doodle (with several amendments) tattooed onto my side, just in time for second year. We came back to St Andrews, I flashed my now ex-roommate the tattoo, watched her face drop, laughed as everyone else looked at me in shock, won the money and looked forward to the day my close group of friends would strip down to streak.

So why do I find myself cringing at my sister getting a tattoo when I’ve already done the deed? Here’s what it comes down to. I love (most) tattoos. It’s the ‘live with no regrets’, ‘j’adore la vie’, ‘free bird’ types that I just can’t stand. Symbols are better, but even so, the bird, heart, cross triumvirate isn’t much of an improvement. Tattoos should be unique and getting the same words or symbols that thousands of people have inked before just defeats the purpose in my mind. It doesn’t have to mean something deep or philosophical, but I do think it needs to mean something to you.

Saying that, I understand the inclination to get a tattoo that just makes you feel a certain way. I look at my tattoo and think ‘be nuts, live a little, do something foolish’ – but I don’t need it to explicitly state that to the world.

Maybe it’s because tattoos aren’t as controversial now since so many people have them, maybe it’s because they’re a new form of expression in a smaller and more similar world, or maybe we are just young and foolish. But if having a tattoo reminds me of enthusiasm and childish silliness when I’m old and wrinkly, then that will be the greatest payoff.

So if you want one, take a beat, choose something that you won’t hate 50 years from now, and get inked.