Ta-da!

Okay, so there’s this thing that happens when you realize you’re 28 with two children and a minivan. At least it happened with me. It’s not that I am unhappy or regretful by any means. I love my life. And, in fact, I think I am as happy now as I could ever be. It’s just, I guess, I needed to rebel a little. I was feeling like I was starting to fit into a soccer mom mold a little too comfortably and I needed to separate myself a bit from that. So, I got it into my head to get a tattoo. I’ve talked about it for years. I guess I thought it would help me recapture some sense of lost youth.

I thought the best time to get one would be on our trip to Hawaii and I managed to sucker Thomas into doing it along with me. We headed down to Hart & Huntington (the tattoo parlor featured on the show Inked) and made our appointment. Here’s what I didn’t know. Getting a tattoo is not nearly as spontaneous as one might think. First, we had to go down and look at portfolios. We needed to have a clear idea/picture of what we wanted. We had to pick the artist. Talk to the artist. Get a price quote and make an appointment after giving a non-refundable deposit. Not exactly a spur of the moment experience. But, once we made our appointment, I had the best time. We showed up the next night at 9pm and my tattoo artist, Max, was everything your first tattoo artist should be. He was my dad’s age and seemed to have only one eye. He was very sweet and considerate. In fact, in a strange way, he was quite the gentleman. I say in a strange way, because while he made sure to pull out the chair for me and praise my decision to be a stay-at-home mom he also filled every bawdy story he told with enough expletives to shock even me. But, he did a great job and made my experience awesome.

I know these things have to be addictive because I am already thinking about what I’d do if I got another one. So, take that soccer mom image. It turns out I don’t fit quite as comfortably as I might have seemed...