“Why would you put a bumper sticker on a Ferrari?” one might ask, and my simple answer is because it is MY Ferrari.
Coming from my Catholic Italian family, tattoos and any kind of marking up of the body, especially on women, was not exactly encouraged. So, when I came home at 17 with a stud in my nose and the following year with my first tattoo, my dad said the whole bumper sticker line to me to sway me from ever getting another.
“Well, what does the bumper sticker say?” I replied, “If it is something I feel strongly or passionate about, of course, I’d smack that bumper sticker right on.”
And there it was, that’s when I made the deal with my father (and mother, I may add) to only get permanent ink needled into my skin if it genuinely means something to me.
So here I am four years later and four tattoos deep, each one representing my impulse to document my life in a different manner.
I identify greatly with my zodiac sign as a Scorpio, and I’ve been addicted to reading my horoscope since I was about 15. For a first time tattoo, I wanted to get something tiny, simple and of course meaningful. My zodiac sign makes me feel connected and proud of who I am, and I don’t know about you, but I find that pretty meaningful.
Yes, I know, this Jimmie Davis tune is a cliche that many of us connect to our childhood, but that doesn’t make it any less significant in my eyes. My older sister and I are especially close, so we decided to get tattoos to embody that. But we do have two brothers who we are also very close too, but they were less keen on getting matching tattoos, and we still wanted them to be apart of the permanent piece as well. That’s why we decided on these lyrics from the same song our parents sang to all four of us; not to mention it also has the first initial of all of our names within it (Nina, Michael, Nicolas, Ariana).
Serendipity is “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way," according to the Oxford Dictionary. The definition of the word speaks for itself with this one, in terms of why I’d want this inked onto my body.
My most recent tattoo is a pair of John Lennon style glasses that I got with my best friend of 15 years. She is the kind of friend that is no longer just a friend, but a legitimate part of my family as I am hers. We grew up together, and the soundtrack to our childhood mainly consists of The Beatles.
My advice to anyone that’s in the market of wanting a tattoo, is to make sure it is something you genuinely want to have on your body for the rest of your life. Whether it has some deep meaning to you or not, I would say it’s aesthetic appeal to you can be just as important.
Sheetal Tadiparty
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