Tattoos are an interesting thing, at one point in time people with tattoos tended to belong to a certain group of people and were often frowned upon. Nowadays, according to a survey done in 2010, around a fifth of the population has tattoos and around 29% of 16-44 year olds have tattoos.
I don’t mind tattoos, actually for the most part I really quite like them, however I do think they’re not necessarily something you should get done on a whim, though I suppose that applies to any kind of permanent change you make to your body. I also think that they’re a very personal thing and a matter of taste, what one person likes another person may hate. I know that I sometimes see tattoos and think ‘Urgh, that looks awful,’ other times I see tattoos and think ‘That looks good, but I wouldn’t have it,’ and occasionally I’ll see one and think ‘Oh wow, that looks incredible!’
I’ve wanted to get a tattoo done for a while, however I wanted to get something that had meaning to me. Just before I turned 20 I took the plunge, so to speak, and had my first tattoo done, my final act of teenage rebellion as I like to call it sometimes. About a month or so later I got my second one done, mostly because both tattoos are quotes that I feel compliment each other, maybe not specifically in words or literal meaning but in what they personally mean to me. Both had been stuck on my bedroom wall for months and I felt like I should get a more permanent reminder of them.
The first tattoo I got reads: ‘Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter , and those who matter don’t mind.’ Now this quote is often attributed to Dr. Seuss, but he never actually said it. The “those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind,” was actually said by a man who was talking about the lack of seating arrangement at a social event he was organising, the rest of the quote was added later by other people. In my opinion the origin of the quote is far less important than the meaning it holds for me. For me it is a reminder to always be myself, not to worry about those who don’t like me for who I am and to appreciate those who do like me as I am.
The second tattoo I got reads: ‘Isn’t it wild and intriguing and beautiful to think that everyday we are new.’ and is actually a Taylor Swift quote that comes from the forward to her 1989 album. The first time I read it the quote seemed to jump out at me and it has stuck with me since. At that point in time it felt like almost every single day I was discovering something new about myself, like every day I was a little bit different from the day before. For me this quote feels like means every day is a new page to be written on, every day there’s a new adventure to be had and each page written and each adventure had changes us slightly and leaves its own mark. At least that’s my interpretation of the quote.
At the moment I have two tattoos however there are two more I would quite like to get at some point, though that depends on whether the ideas that I have would actually work and at the moment I don’t have the money to get any more done. For now I think I’ll just have to stick with the ones I’ve got.
Sophie x
A Place of Mine 