Choose the Right Tattoo Books
On my eighteenth birthday in honor to my entry into adulthood, I decided to get a tattoo. My friend Elaine, who was already eighteen, agreed to come with me and we duly made an appointment at the local tattoo parlor. She knew what tattoo she wanted, but I had no idea. Although I didn’t think that a tattoo of Tigger was the way to enter into a life of adulthood, Elaine wanted it and had made up her mind. I was pretty sure that if I was going to have a tattoo that was to be with me for the rest of my natural life, it had to be something meaningful. Something that said “me”! We arrived early to look through the stacks of tattoo books at the parlor, with me hoping that I would find what I was looking for.
The first tattoo books I looked through had some really horrific artwork in them, no matter how cleverly disguised as art, these were not for me, and I started to get worried. I was looking for a smallish, feminine tattoo that I could confidently wear on my ankle and would represent who I am. I was concerned that I would not find anything in the tattoo books at the parlor.
I looked through a number of tattoo books in the first half hour and found some of them ugly and some really beautiful, but none that said “this is you”, or leapt out from the page at me. At this point in time I was becoming concerned and one of the tattoo artists saw this. He came over to me with another armful of tattoo books and I thought, oh no, not more! But after asking me a few questions about what I liked and who I am, he went through the tattoo books until he felt he had the right one, opened it and pointed at the perfect tattoo for me.
He showed me a small rainbow colored dolphin, it was attractive and dainty. It was what I was looking for, I am an artist and I felt that the colors and the dolphin were both representative of the kind of person I was. I loved dolphins and the ocean, I set down the other tattoo books and nodding to him, I realized I had found my perfect tattoo.
Last weekend, I helped another friend of mine look through tattoo books for something that would be perfect for her. She had the same pains of finding something that I’d had. After she’d found what she wanted, I sat there and glanced through the tattoo books for the sole purpose of passing time. In the very first of the tattoo books that I opened, I smiled. Here we go again! My friend and I walked out of the tattoo parlor a few hours later, with smiles on both of our faces. If you’re planning on getting a tattoo, consider yourself warned, sometimes those stacks of tattoo books can be rather addictive.
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