I got my first tattoo professionally done when I was 16 years old. My dad took me on my birthday, and when I came home that afternoon without my mom or stepfather knowing, they were both surprisingly understanding about it.

I got my next tattoo professionally done on my 18th birthday. A couple of my friends ditched class to come with me get it done. It had become a sort of self-tradition to only get tattoos professionally done on my actual birthday. After two tattoos, I was bitten by the bug, so naturally, I had to find a way to bend the rules of that tradition without breaking it.

As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, I am a theater major. One of the driving points of training during my freshman year of college was to “follow your impulses,” whatever that means. So I followed my impulses all the way over to a needle and some ink and gave myself my first ever stick-and-poke.

For those who don’t know, a stick-and-poke is a home-done tattoo, where you use an ordinary threading needle and nontoxic ink to tattoo your body. I’m not going to go into much more detail of how to do this (as I don’t want to be potentially liable for any stick-and-pokes gone awry) but YouTube is filled with videos on the subject matter if you are really interested. The final result was a sloppily traced circle, smaller than the size of a dime, on my upper thigh. I tell people it represents karma; what goes around comes around, but most people just think it’s a mole. I used to think I was going to turn it into something else eventually, but the now faded circle has slowly grown on me, reminding me of a blissful time when I was 19 and stupid.

Since then I’ve given myself multiple other stick-and-pokes. I have a faded one on my finger, one just above my knee, and one on my foot that I did with recently with a dear friend. All my home-done tattoos are tiny, simple, and easy to cover if need be.

They are not perfect. I know they will not be done perfectly well before I begin each design. That's not the point of these tattoos; what they’ve really become are physical memories. The circle tattoo I did almost two years ago may have started off as an impulse, but now has become a vital part of my body.

I know tattoos aren't for everyone, but, personally, I'm in love with the aesthetic and emotional meanings that they can so delicately evoke.

I still enjoy getting tattoo's professionally done, too. I have an appointment set up this coming May 1, my 21st birthday.