The Christmas after I turned 13 was when I had finally convinced my parents to let me get my nose pierced and dye my hair pink.  Whenever a tattoo was brought up it was always “you can do whatever you want when your 18.” I never wanted to look like everyone else. Everyone else was boring. I used to love going with my dad to his tattoo appointments. I never got bored watching. I couldn’t wait to be old enough to get one.  He would get these amazing, colorful, bright tattoos which made the whole process seems like even more of an art form. . I wanted to be covered in color. I got my love of color from my mom who paints with nothing but layers of bright colors. From about the time I was 14, a good majority of the friends I made were tattooed and some even learning to do it themselves. It was a friend of mine who tattooed me on my 18^th birthday, he even gave me the tattoo for free. It was a new skool fairy that I wanted fully colored and he told me it would look better in black and grey so that’s how he did it. (It’s colored in now…of course) The same guy did the first couple and since he was into asian art, that’s what all of them ended up to be. They are all, except the fairy, the tattoos on my body I wish I had never gotten. Not because they are bad tattoos, but because they don’t fit me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great style, just not what I’m into. The next artist I went to see was Nick Fish at absolute tattoo. He was one of the guys who tattooed a lot of my friends when I was younger. He had a  style I liked and used a lot of color, which I’m super into. He was still tattooing a close friend of mine so I was  reintroduced and Nick started tattooing me. Since him I have been worked on by Clark Kent “Pud” at Hold Fast tattoo, and Milton. I like many styles of tattoo so I want to be tattooed by many people. I wanted to tell stories about my life with the tattoos I got. Just like you’re supposed to write things down so you don’t forget them. My tattoos are reminders of things, people, and experiences I never want to forget. I saw a story on the National Geographic

Channel about a much older woman who had a full body suit of tattoos all telling stories about her life. It was inspiring to me. My body is just an accessory to my soul so why not decorate it and make it something I can read to my kids, kids instead of books.