I grew up in the catholic school system, with parents that took my whole family to church every Sunday. My parents also own a business where it is unprofessional for the employees to have tattoos showing. The catholic church (I'm pretty sure) believes that getting a tattoo or piercing is defacing Gods creation. My parents share this point of view.

Society has changed a lot in the past ten years or so, tattoos in the work place are not seen as distasteful but seen as just a tattoo. When I decided to get my tattoo I waited for almost two years before I got it. I waited so long because I needed to make sure it was not just "Oh I want a tattoo lets just go get one" I wanted to make sure that when asked about it by my parents or anyone else that I was able to give a good solid answer. I got "live" tattooed on my side and I feel like it is a pretty basic tattoo but my meaning behind it is to do what I want live and learn from my mistakes, and it's okay to make mistakes. Now every time I see a friends tattoo I ask them what it means or why they got it. I have gotten a few answers of "I don't know, I just thought it was pretty" but the main responses I get are people have a story behind each one and they all have meaning to them. The stories behind people's tattoos are almost always very touching, some relate to the persons childhood or their struggles in life and they want to be able to always have a reminder of their strength or their love for someone that impacted their life. I think tattoos are beautiful, but the stories behind them are the best part.