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No longer taboo or a mark of deviancy (or motorcycle ownership), tattoos have become a regular part of our modern culture.
Most of us get our tattoos to either memorialize events or people, or to identity a part of ourselves that are usaully within us in a way for everyone around to see. Tell your tattoo story… Here are mine:
I got my first tattoo in May of 2004. I felt like I had lived an entire lifetime, and was beginning a whole second life. A failed marriage, raising 2 kids alone, working 3 jobs to make ends meet while trying to get my education. Fighting for security, both financial and emotional, for myself and my children. Then in 2003, things began to turn around. I had been promoted at my primary job and no longer needed to work more than 1 job, I was getting closer to earning my degree, and coming to terms with the scars left on my family. Then I met Brian, and from that day on, things got better and better. 2 days before receiving my degree, I went with Brian to his regular tattoo artist, and decided it was time. I chose a design that for me meant strength, hanging on, and beauty. Not knowing what to expect, I also made sure it was simple. While some people find the experience of getting a tattoo painful, I wouldn’t call it pain - just an uncomfortable feeling at times, and not much at the rest. This one is on my right calf.
The symbol of the dragon evolved between myself and Brian as sort of “our” theme. Honest, brave, tenacious, strong, protective. That was our relationship. He was my dragon, and I was his. We brought out the best in each other, and filled in the weaknesses we had. When we married, we used entwined dragons as our theme.
I finally got my second tattoo just this year (March). I took the image that been drawn for our wedding invitations, and added tribal markings and color to create an original tattoo. It is another symbol for my relationship with Brian, and after celebrating our second anniversary, it was my way of saying I meant ‘forever’. This one is on my left upper arm.
Use the comments to tell the story of your tattoos, or what you would get if you don’t have one. If you have pictures, email them to me and I’ll add them to this post so we can see what you’re talking about!
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Hi Renee,
At the age of 50, I got my first tattoo on 14th December 2005 - and my fiancee (in her mid-60s) got her first one on the same day too!
It was the eve of our wedding day and some months beforehand we’d talked - a bit jokingly, admittedly - about each getting a tattoo of some kind, so I arranged it as a wedding present.
A friend of ours has a private tattoo parlour in her own home. I took Marcy on a little “Magical Mystery Tour” ending at Sheila’s home. As we pulled onto the drive and it began to dawn on Marcy what I had in store, her face paled a little. By the time we were sitting in the parlour she was quite apprehensive. As Sheila prepared to begin work on Marcy first, it was then that Marcy admitted, in a quiet voice, that she had quite a low pain threshhold!
Being quite small tattoos, they didn’t take long - but poor M had to grit her teeth throughout the ordeal. As you can see from the picture, the tats are on the inner part of our wrists - a particularly sensitive area of skin!
I found it quite painful too, but after the first few minutes it eased off a little and I found it easy to cope with.
They looked beautiful and fresh for our wedding the following day. We had to have them ‘boosted’ a few weeks later - another painful interlude for poor Marcy, but she persevered, bless her.
I chose the design - a single musical note, a semi-quaver - to represent marital harmony, our mutual love of music, and the Aum, the spiritual sound of the universe.
Some weeks later and despite being obviously freaked out by the pain she’d gone through on my behalf, Marcy amazed me by suggesting we each get another tattoo, so we had one on our other wrists!
This is mine - an ‘M’ (for Marcy) surrounded by some fine Celtic filigree and an emerald green fill. Marcy had a ‘B’ in the same design. Some weeks later I had it extended around my wrist with a complex three-part black Celtic band like a bracelet. (Marcy felt she’d experienced enough pain by then so didn’t join in.) It’s my pride and joy.
I’m now getting ready to pick out another for myself (a 52nd birthday present from M), to go on my left upper arm. It is somewhat addictive once you get started - but I don’t think it’s the pain I want, just the end result!
I got my first and only tattoo so far on January 16, 2007 in Airlie Beach, Australia. It is a very simple yet for me very powerful tattoo: the Chinese word “ning jing” (”serenity”) in black ink and simplified Mandarin letters. I always loved the Chinese alphabet with its beautiful, flowing characters and wanted to get a Chinese tattoo for a long time. Since I am also a browncoat (ie. fan of the great TV series Firefly and its movie sequel Serenity) these characters were a logical choice. Besides the Firefly reference, the word “serenity” is actually one of the most fascinating words in any language to me and the Mandarin letters look just beautiful.
I don’t care for the pain at all, but I must also agree that tattoos are for some reason I cannot quite grasp very addictive. I find myself already thinking about having another one. I know this is a quite geeky tattoo and many people probably think I’m crazy, but I couldn’t care less, I’m very happy with it. I am already looking forward for the next hot day so that I can show off a bit and I am still looking forward to the first random browncoat recognising the somewhat hidden meaning…
Another year, another tattoo!
My fourth (if you count the second and third, merged, as two), and largest to date, is Gandalf’s sword Glamdring. I found a beautiful line drawing of it on the internet and passed it to my tattooist. She did it last week, so it’s still looking very fresh in the photo. I’m very pleased with it.
It came out a little bigger than I originally thought it would, but it doesn’t matter. I’m looking forward to next summer when I can really show it off!
It was actually less painful than having the little ones done on the inside of my wrists - it took about two hours and I only winced once (when she filled in the blue bits on the handle)
The next one’s already in the planning stage - I want to find a nice crop circle pattern to go on my other shoulder!
Very nice, Bob!!!
It’s been so VERY long since I have posted on here that I almost forgot about it. Perhaps it’s time to get a new tat just to keep things lively. I’ve been thinking about a cuff on my upper right arm, just a simple black-only design. All of mine so far have been very colorful, so maybe I’ll do old-school this time. Can’t wait to see that crop circle!
Very nice ideas for some tattoos on here, thanks.
My Son went away on holiday and came back with a rather nice tattoo on his arm. So I went looking to see what he could have ended up with and I came across this video site showing a compilation of Tattoo videos that I thought could be a ‘quick reference’ point for someone else interested in seeing what is being done in the industry.
I got my first tattoo when i was 20 yrs old . and i am getting new tattoo soon on my ankle ! sexy huh ?
wow! nice article. thanks for sharing
I am getting my first tattoo of “grace” on the left side of my ribs. It will be worth the pain!