Recently my oldest daughter decided that she wanted a tattoo. My initial reaction was not what she had hoped for. My thoughts on tattoos were not positive. The people that I knew personally that had “defaced” their bodies were few. I just knew I didn’t like tattoos, especially in light of the white hot spotlight on that nasty tattooed stripper home wrecker that Jesse James had been caught with recently. Her parents must be sooo proud….But I digress….
So when my daughter announced that she was getting one, I tried to discourage her any way that I could. I did not prevail. So I decided that (after a lot of convincing) if she was determined to do this act, then I needed to be sure that the place she went to was the “right” place. Not dirty and disease infested. I am a mother-what can I say?
After doing some online research of places in the area, she had it narrowed down to a couple of places. Off we went to check it out and talk with the people there. Let me say right off I was not really impressed with the outside of the first establishment at first glimpse. It was in an area that the offices were being completely renovated and they had a mess everywhere. The shop that we went into was upstairs in a row of offices. Most of the surrounding offices were out of business. I was a little skeptical and apprehensive about this place.
However, once we were inside the girls there were super. It was a clean place and they had all their proper paperwork. They took a great amount of time patiently answering our questions and allaying our fears. After giving it some thought and discussion, it was decided this was the place that would give the tattoo.
We looked through the portfolios’ that were out showcasing the work and style each artist performed and made a choice based on what we liked. Leah was the girl we chose. It turned out to be a good decision. My daughter told her what she wanted and gave her a sample sketch she had drawn of the design. Leah gave some suggestions on how to improve it and promised to work on it before she returned. We made the appointment for the next weekend and then we left.
On the day of the appointment, my daughter was anxious and nervous. I was resigned and a little sad. But I wanted to be supportive of her since she was old enough to make this decision on her own and had made up her mind to do it with or without me.
Once we arrived, Leah was ready for us and was meticulous about her tools and supplies and the cleanliness of her working environment. I was relieved by this. She provided an area that was screened from others as my daughter had chosen her upper thigh as her tattoo placement.
Leah worked diligently for about an hour or so until she had it perfected and I must admit the finished product was impressive. I was pleased with her level of artistic expertise and her friendliness.
All in all the experience was not what I expected and was pleasantly surprised that my prejudices’ were shattered after going through this with my daughter. Again I had to be shown that I need to be a little more open minded about things.
As that old saying goes-the older I get the more I realize how much I don’t really know… Granted my daughter has assured me that this is the only one she plans to get and I am happy to hear that. I must admit though that some evil part of me took a little pleasure in knowing that it hurt a little bit in hopes that it would discourage her from getting anymore. As open minded as I am trying to become- I still believe that I brought her body into this world “unspoiled” by ink and dyes and would like it to remain that way as much as possible….
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