Tattoo: Guess Who Has A New One?

Not me! So, this will probably turn into a really long post so grab a cup-a-joe and settle in to your computer chair.

Several months ago my then 16 yr old daughter told me she wanted a tattoo. I wasn’t surprised. Of all my kids I figured she’d be the one to want one. Not because they’re losers or druggies, but you just know your kids.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the location of the tattoo she wanted. Smooch said that she wanted the word “overcome” in Hebrew on the underside of her wrist. “WHERE? On a 16 yr old? Oh, I don’t think so.” Of course, because of our strained relationship I didn’t say that. I actually said, “I’ll have to get back to you.”
Over the course of a month or more we discussed this location. I wasn’t concerned about her getting a tattoo. My thoughts were on her future. There is a stigma still about people with tattoos. Smoochie wants to be a Youth Pastor/Leader and I told her that she’d have to find a very young church or work in the inner city to find a church willing to hire a young lady with a tattoo on her wrist. Trust me, none of the country bumpkin churches in our area care for that sort of thing: right or wrong.
I also said that she is only 16, her career path might change and what happens when she goes to interviews, say at an accounting firm and when she shakes the HR person’s  hand they notice the tattoo. Many companies have policies on whether tattoos can be visible. Wearing long sleeve shirts in the summer would stink! Always having to cover it up, what a pain!
So, bottom line came when I said she could get a tattoo on another part of her body, but not her wrist. Of course she didn’t care for that answer. A couple weeks later, I get a txt message saying she’ll get a tattoo on her calf. Alrighty then, the appt was made not only for herself, but for her BFF, Mac on Mac’s bday!
We headed to Bare Nasty Tattoos: Me, Smoochie, Mac, and Mac’s mom, Mary. The girls had done their research and found this was the best place to go in the area and the guys was reasonably priced.

   Mac was the first to go. She got a tattoo…ON. HER. WRIST. What I was so thrilled for, and had nothing to do with, was the fact that Randy, the owner told Mac EXACTLY what I had told Smooch about what the future might hold if she gets a tattoo on her wrist! THANK you!

Well, Mac was not deterred. She got her tat on her wrist and didn’t even flinch when Randy started. I guess a lot of her friends didn’t think she’d be able to handle it and probably wouldn’t go through with it. I told her that it might feel funky to begin with because she has no idea what to expect, but that she’d be fine.

 









Next came Smooch. She had to sit kind of funky because it was going on the side of her lower leg. Her dangling leg actually fell asleep. We talked with Randy about his new walk with the Lord and tried to encourage him. Smooch meanwhile is trying to tempt me into getting a tattoo!
 
It all went so quickly and it was kind of surreal. Here I am watching my daughter have her body permanently altered. This body that had never had a blemish. Now, forever changed. It was really cool and Randy did an amazing job! I hope this is the only tattoo she ever gets, but she’s still young and I have a feeling she still wants more.

Now, I know there are those of you who are questioning whether a Christian should have a tattoo. First of all, I’d like to direct you to a website that I believe really covers this topic: Sacred Ink. I agree with what they share and after having been married to a man with tattoos knew that it wasn’t unbiblical. First of all, this was discussed in the Old Testament and was dealing with pagan worship. Those of us living now in a relationship with Christ are under the new law. If we weren’t we could be stoned to death, have hands cut off, and more when we sinned! Now aren’t you thankful we live under the new covenant?

For the record, I don’t have one…yet. Kat Von D, if you ever read this, I want you to do portraits of my kids with their nicknames on my calf.