Dear Heath,

Just so you know, I love you. I love your rude personality. I love how you never lie to me (that I know of at least) and always speak your mind. I love how you are not afraid to be yourself and you never ask for forgiveness for it. I love being your best friend.

However, we had an argument the other night. And I am glad we did, honestly. It brought to my attention that I have not given your tattoos that much thought, or maybe too much thought.

I loved your tats at first! I love the swallows you have on your inner biceps and I remember when you first got them. I love the tree crawling up your sleeved ink, stretching its branches for all to see.

Then something happened. You started getting pieces more frequently in what seemed like a short amount of time. I hated this rapid succession of tattoos. I felt like you were moving too fast and would possibly regret them later. I was condescending when you would get your tattoos and never took into account what they meant to you. I just judged.

I judged you without even realizing it. And this is probably going to be how society judges you as well. People are going to start looking at you differently as you continue to change your look. They are not going to see a handsome, white boy with a beard that clearly needs to be trimmed. When you get more, most people will just only see the tattoos. They will see the ink and some will not bother to even get to know you because of it, and that goes for dating too. It might even effect your career down the line.

This breaks my heart that this will happen to you. But I know you give zero f**ks about what people to have to say about you. And that is why I love you, best friend.

I promise to get to know the tattoos you have and to support your decision to get many more in the future. Except on your face and hands. I will yell at you for that.

Thank you for being patient and thank you for letting me be a part of the journey of your ink.

Love your bestie with testes,

Justin