I have been interested in tattoos since I was little. I love the idea of being able to display art, symbols, or designs on yourself that tell more about you. In my household, it is a topic highly debated because my siblings and I eventually want tattoos and my dad hates them. He says tattoos will mark you forever and you’re stuck with them so, it is too big of a chance you’ll make a bad decision and regret it. 

While I can see his point of view and understand the things that could go wrong, there are still so many good reasons to get a tattoo. 

For example, my grandma was born in Japan and didn’t move here until my mom was 6 years old. She now lives in Florida and I always love visiting her and spending time with her. It stinks that we don’t have forever together and I want to get something that will remind me of her so she can be a part of my life forever. My mom, aunt, and two of my cousins have now all gotten tattoos in honor of her. She wrote “family”, “love” and a few other words like that on paper and they took it to the tattoo place and each chose one word written in Japanese in her handwriting and got it tattooed somewhere on them. I think this is such a great way to make her part of me, and I want to do the same when I am 18.

While remembering family is one great reason to get a tattoo there are so many more that may be important to people. Maybe someone lost a pet or close friend, fought a mental illness or sickness, beat cancer, has a mental health issue, or is a survivor. Even if they don’t have a true reason behind it and they just want to be able to express themselves as who they are. Tattoos are special to a lot of people and condemning them because they are permanent seems unreasonable. 

I also think that if all goes wrong and you hate the tattoos there are ways to get them removed, while tedious and expensive it is possible. There are also more friendly options for young adults that while permanent are easier to cover or remove like the stick and poke. While this is an idea frowned upon by many parents it’s a great way to test the waters and see if you truly want a tattoo before getting something you don’t like and having to pay a ton of money to get it removed. It is a permanent tattoo but fades over time and is easier to remove because in professional tattoos more ink is used and it is placed deeper into the skin so it is harder to access/remove.

Tattoos are something that can be so special and mean so much to so many people and it doesn’t affect anyone but your own body so you should be able to get what you want and where you want it and no one should try to stop you or force you to get it removed.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Lily Farrell at [email protected]

To view more of Lily Farrell’s work, click here.