As one of my best friends lifted the back of her shirt, I couldn't believe my eyes. There it was. A circle of stick people holding hands plopped on the right side of her back.
I never thought that Julie Tuttle, second-year student at UGA and one of my best ballet friends, would ever have the courage to get a tattoo, or ever want one.
First came the numerous ear piercings and then the eyebrow piercing - so our group of friends all saw it coming. Yet past the quick, negative judgment, I finally discovered her need for this body art.
"This symbol represents the summer camp I go to, Camp Mikell," she explained. "As my first year on summer staff, I got this tattoo because it is a tradition for counselors and it represents the camp that I have grown up going to every summer."
Tattoos are no longer only for the rebellious. Times have changed. For many the purpose of tattoos is either symbolization or decoration. Still, some get them for no reason at all.
What about those who get them because everyone else has them?
"But Mom, everyone else has one," is the phrase that every parent dreads hearing. My mom always responded with, "You're not everyone else." She had a point.
So why follow the crowd and resort to these meaningless tattoos? I guess it is just the same as girls getting belly button rings. Both usually happen from dares (or lack of judgment, if you know what I mean).
Getting tattoos with no special meaning relating to a person's life encounters or experiences is pure stupidity. Why decorate your body with a stupid heart or star? These symbols are typically the most popular for tattoos that serve no meaning.
Tattoos are also much like decorating. What's in now won't be in later, so why not make your tattoo meaningful? You might as well get something that you will look at in twenty years and remember. If you're going to have a tattoo for the rest of your life and watch it wrinkle, it better be meaningful.
Typically, tattoos serve as rites of passage symbolizing marks of status, religion, decoration, pledges of love, experiences, devotion or memorial purposes.
So my friend did the right thing for herself. Twenty years from now she will look at her tattoo and remember all the fun times she had with her friends at summer camp. Those memories are stamped on her forever and will never fade.
The human body is a miraculous creation, so if you're going to decorate it, decorate with memories.
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