To ink or not to ink–that is the question. No disrespect to Shakespeare, but does artistic beauty truly outweigh the terrific pain?
Senior Christina Justice put her family first when soldiering through her first tattoo. She chose angel wings with eagle feathers on her left shoulder, which is a combination of her mother’s angel tattoo and her father’s eagle tattoo.
To top off the tie between her mother and father, Justice had the word “family” tattooed in Arabic between the wings.
“When people tell you tattoos hurt, they’re not lying,” said Justice, recalling her first tattoo parlor experience.
Sophomore Nicholas Richardson built up the courage to get a tattoo that reads ‘Nikki’, the name of his mother. Surprisingly, Richardson said it actually didn’t hurt at all.
“I just walked to the tattoo shop and paid for it out of my own pocket,” he said “my mom knew and everything”.
The Food and Drug Administration’s most recent regulations on tattooing list the several pros and cons to the popular form of the body art. Health effects may vary from allergic reactions to even more serious bacterial infections such as hepatitis and HIV.
Risks of infection stem from improperly sterilized needles or improper aftercare of a tattoo, the FDA said. Other common cons are removal problems, MRI complications, growth formations at the puncture site and an inability to donate blood. A more common con is dissatisfaction, and since it’s permanent, chances of laser surgery removal are costly and painful.
Although many may find themselves getting tattoos solely to keep up with social trends, 2010 graduate Killian Moroney sought a different interpretation for his first tattoo.
Diagnosed with Type I diabetes at the age of 16, Moroney was required to wear a diabetic bracelet to alert paramedics to inject insulin in case of emergency.
However, none of these bracelets met Moroney’s satisfaction. Because of his parent’s frustration at his failure to wear the bracelet, they allowed him to transfer all of the information from the diabetic bracelet onto his forearm as a tattoo.
“It looks really cool and it didn’t even hurt,” Moroney said.
Senior Dylan Keenan expressed his love for skateboarding and a particular manufacturer, when he received his newly-minted diamond tattoo about a month ago.
Keenan, who has been skateboarding for six years on and off, has grown quite fond of the Diamond Supply Co.
Although this is his first tattoo, Keenan said he plans to get ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ across his collarbone and more tats on the backs of his calves.
In senior Trip Wood’s freshman year of high school, he drew a rough draft of a cross tied to a hook.
“I just drew it because I thought it looked kind of cool,” Wood said.
However, Wood had no idea of the turn his life would soon take and how the sketch would soon play a major role in it. Wood gave his life to Christ a year after the free-hand sketch was created. He began getting really involved in his church, Heritage Christian. Aware of his soon approaching eighteenth birthday, the idea of treating himself to a tattoo began to grow on him.
“I found the old picture I drew, had some ideas, and started planning it out,” Wood said.
After Wood received the tat it symbolized his turning 18, but it soon came to represent a quote that Jesus says in the book of Matthew.
“Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me,” Matthew 10:38.
“This cross reminds me of my impulsiveness and how I’m ready to take it and give it up to Christ,” Wood said.
The art of tattooing can be artistically unique, but before you find yourself on the business end of a tattoo gun, make sure you think before you ink.