OMFG -- Tatts.

I wear my heart on my sleeve....quite literally actually! I have three small hearts tattooed onto my wrist, drawn by three people who are near and dear to my own heart. These love scrawls are one of four tattoos I've amassed over the past five years and are all of similarly sentimental value both in love and my outlook on life.

I wouldn't characterize myself as some one who fits the mold as a tattooed being -- I'm not especially rebellious, a repressed emo teen, remotely punk or currently residing in a trailer park...but that archetype is a dated one even so. I choose to see my inked art as trickling love notes (of self-love, family love and perhaps one day romantic love --although symbolically. Note to all you girls and boys who think you're with the "one" and absolutely must needle their names into your skin: don't.) that tell a story throughout my body. They really are just for me with the other three being in rather discreet places...the only person who sees those on a regular basis other than myself is my boyfriend. The reason I got them? Well I am certain in the things I believe in and that was enough for me to get some permanent reminders of those ideals. No butterflies or dolphins on this body!

The tattooed stereotype has faded significantly over the past couple of decades. More twenty-somethings now than ever before are getting inked and one only has to look around on a crowded night at any given club to see proof. From hardcore arm sleeves to misguided tramp stamps and everything in between can be noted on the masses of dancing scantily-clad bodies. Our generation, more than any other, is choosing to get inked and the numbers just keep going up! While the starchy and rigid may classify this as a disobedient youth or poor decision-making, I think it's a nice declaration that we twenty-somethings, now more than ever, are overtly confident in our thoughts, feelings and actions. I'm always interested when some one tells me why they got a tattoo and the meaning behind it. It's usually thought-provoking and intriguing...save for the Mickey Mouses mowing lawns in private areas and other results of hilariously drunken escapades!

Despite what I may think personally of all the visually silly tattoos I've seen (Chinese characters written backwards, mustaches on fingers, badly inked tribal signs and any creepily lifelike portrait just to name a few..) I think it's totally endearing and even more so another unifying aspect of this particular generation of twenty-somethings! Thoughts become actions if you believe they will and perhaps tattoos are the first step in solidifying some of our most important thoughts and experiences in life thus far. So draw it, sketch it, think it, ink it -- just be confident enough to own it; and isn't that exactly what we all are.
x