I do not. When you read my book, Insert Giggle Giggle, Laughing Your Way through Raising Kids and Running A Business, (or if you know them already) you may come to the opinion that my husband, Steve, and our youngest son, William, have some of the same personality traits. And both have tattoos. And if you know me and our oldest son, Hayden (who have similar personality traits), you may know that neither of us has a tattoo.
Exactly what kind of personality traits am I speaking of? Am I trying to assert that people that have "certain" personality traits would be the "type" of person to have a tattoo? Well, maybe and maybe not. In my book I have a hilarious story about a conversation I once had with a friend of mine and what she said about kids having tattoos and how moms should feel about it ….it’s a hoot (insert giggle giggle!).
Anyway, when I was growing up, no one had tattoos that I knew of. Every now and then I would see a tattoo, maybe in a movie, and it seemed to be associated with men in the navy (insert giggle giggle), you know, like an anchor. Maybe my memory is defaulting to Popeye (insert giggle giggle!). Or maybe a tattoo was associated with bikers, Hell’s Angels, you know, rough and rowdy-type men – never was a tattoo on a woman…..
Funny aside: Over ten years ago, when the boys were 22 and 18, we took a family trip to the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. William had just gotten a tattoo on his back (shoulder area). When he turned 18, he came into our bedroom one night and said that he wanted a tattoo and that he was now old enough not to need our permission. He just wanted us to know, sort of out of respect, I think. So, we thanked him for that and then Steve told him that we would, in fact, pay for his tattoo IF Steve could go with him and scope out the situation, you know, to make sure it was reputable, clean, and (probably) that William didn’t pick out something he may later not be happy with (insert giggle giggle). William jumped on this – I mean tattoos are expensive! So, off they went. He got a (lovely) cross with a "Blessed" message tattoo. Anyway, we are in the Bahamas and William was asked several times as we were all walking along together and people actually passing by us (on the beach and walking around the city), if he would like some marijuana maybe….? It became comical (insert giggle giggle)! Now, again, if you know anything about my boys, William has that athletic and sort of don’t-mess-with-me swagger, very similar to Steve. Hayden finally said, “Why isn’t anyone asking me if I want some pot?!? I want to be asked !!!” (insert giggle giggle!!). It was hilarious!
So, again, am I disparaging people that have tattoos? While on this same beach trip, I noticed and said, “Every grandmother on this beach has a tattoo somewhere!” So, obviously there is no demographic excluded or societal stigma about having a tattoo nowadays. I see lovely young girls with tasteful tattoos. I see people with tattoos of biblical verses (William has one of those too). You see tattoos of tributes to family members, dates of births or deaths, small insignias of memorable events, and acts of love memorialized…….
Here’s how Steve came about his tattoo. We were sitting at our club pool one day and it was very close to our (I think 38th) wedding anniversary. We were trying to decide how to celebrate. So, I said, “We should just have pizza and some beers and go get matching tattoos!”. Steve sort of laughed. I’m at work later in the week, and I can’t reach Steve, which is not that unusual. I get home and he’s sort of prancing around a little…..all of a sudden, I see on his arm a tattoo!!!! He had gone and surprised me by getting a tattoo of a butterfly with our initials stenciled into the wing openings. The selection of this particular tattoo was inspired by a drawing his grandfather had sent to Hayden when he was a small child and enclosed with the drawing was a letter to Hayden about the growth of a butterfly into something so beautiful that may have never seemed possible or expected. Steve's tattoo is lovely and meaningful of several aspects of our life. I love seeing it on his arm every day.
But as with everything in today’s culture, most things go to the extreme. Nothing is ever quite enough and instant gratification of desires or urges get satisfied in every way. In the same way I describe how lovely tattoos can be, you see people walking around with their bodies completely covered in tattoos, even their face. Ugly words that are not commonplace to say in polite company (showing my age, insert giggle giggle), are prominently displayed. And I saw an episode of Law & Order, SVU where the detectives had come across a group of people that were altering their body parts because that was the next level of body “art”, since having tattoos was simply not enough. I couldn’t imagine that being “a thing”, but it is. People are having their ears made into elf-type models, piercings everywhere, and in the extreme cutting off or in other ways altering actual limbs of their body. You do have to wonder why are these people doing these types of things? It’s hard not to stare at someone when you see this sort of display on their body. It doesn’t seem to me to be polite, in fact, it seems rude to look (stare) at them. But isn’t this exactly what they want? Maybe….or maybe not…..
I’ll leave this Chog with this…..Steve had a very interesting piece of trivia for our family when his mom passed away. It stumped us all ! It was noted in some of her medical papers that she had a tattoo. What?! Our Maja! Couldn’t be. Even though she was a very sophisticated and “with it” (as far as societal-happenings) woman, we had never seen a tattoo and she never spoke about having a tattoo. Well, she had a very slim eyeliner, yes, tattooed on her eyelids. You have no idea ever since I learned that, how often I have thought how nice it would be to do that for myself. However, just like with any of my friends that have had “work” done and it looks fabulous, I have this fear that if I do anything to myself, even using the same “people” that they used, that something will go wrong, and I’ll regret doing something unnecessary.
Will I ever get a tattoo? I don’t think so. I’m 63 years old and I guess if I’ve gone this long without one, why get one now. But who knows…? So here I am with the unadorned body that I have (insert giggle giggle)! Oh, well – I’ll just go shopping today and adorn myself in other ways (insert red girl dancing emoji!) !!!
Next up (Thursday)…Do You Like Confrontation?
Always remember to insert and “show off” a giggle giggle ~ Kay 😊
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