I Love My Tattoo

Mar. 22, 2016, it happened — I got my first tattoo on my calf for my 20th birthday at Tattoo Lou's in Bay Shore. When you tell people, especially people who aren't fond of tattoos that you are getting your first one, their initial reactions are all different. When I told a few people I was getting a tattoo I got all different reactions from, "Oh," "I was not expecting that from you," to " OMG you have to show me when it's done." But many months later, I still love my tattoo and I'm happy I got it.

The day I got my tattoo.

The day I got my tattoo I was actually not planning on getting it that day, but plans had changed. I walked into the tattoo place only expecting to get it drawn up and priced, but the next thing I knew was I was waiting an hour for it to be drawn up, filling out paperwork and there I was, sitting in the chair for the next hour.

What is my tattoo? And what does it mean?

My first tattoo is something dear to my heart and love... theatre. I got the theatre masks with the words, "the show must go on" around it. These words really lay out what theatre means to me because no matter what happens on the stage or off the stage, the show will always go on. And trust me, I've had some interesting things happen during a show. I will never forget during opening night of my senior high school show when we did "Shrek The Musical" and the dragons head just went flying off, but they just went with it.

Did your tattoo hurt?

Now I'm not going to say it was like a walk through a park or laying on the beach, but it was definitely a feeling I could go through again. For my tattoo to be actually done it took him about an hour, the only time it really, extremely hurt was when he reached bone, which wasn't very often. Most of the time while getting the tattoo done, I was either texting or playing a game on my phone, so the pain was very minimum. But the shading was definitely a little worse than just the outlining.

Did it peel and was it itchy?

I know most people's tattoo's peel a lot, but for some reason, mine had barely peeled. My tattoo had become so itchy that while I was sleeping I would smack it to stop the itch. So I guess the better you take care of it the less peeling that happens maybe? I don't know, I just know it felt like I was cleaning and putting lotion on my tattoo every other hour.

Should tattoos be frowned upon in the workplace?

To me, I feel tattoos shouldn't be frowned upon in the workplace for a few reasons. Yes not everyone likes them and agrees to get them on your body, but it's your body for a reason. Just because someone doesn't like tattoos doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to get a certain job, unless you have tattoos literally everywhere and you're a salesman or something, but that's different. Everyone is different and unique and I believe you should be able to express your differences in any way that you see fit.