A Brief History Of Young Family Tattoos
I received an excited text from my youngest kid Brett this week, with nothing but exclamation marks and a picture attachment: his right arm displaying a small tattoo of our 1973 VW “Thing” (pictured lower left). I then remembered he had mentioned something over the Holiday Break about getting this particular ink done, and both my wife Meg and I thought it was a weird but cute idea. It occurred to me that Meg, our daughter Nicole and the aforementioned Brett have all had an interesting relationship with tattoos, going back to my first rather wimpy tatt from the Summer of my 22nd year (uh, 1987 for those trying to figure that out). My miniscule drum set tattoo, carved into my left upper arm, was done in San Diego by “Tiger Jimmy” for about $50. You get what you pay for. My wife’s much more ornate (and colorful) tattoos include the one pictured above: a “Tree of Life” with three leaves blowing off of it, signifying our three children making their way on their own (speaking of children, our middle kid Jake has no tattoos and as of this writing has no intention of getting any…go figure). Nicole’s body art includes one of my favorites: Shark Jaws, done on her elbow, that pays homage to her work with (and love for) those incredible life forms. It has never occurred to Meg or I that we would or should discourage our kids from “inking up,” but we DO offer this bit of sage advice when it comes to tattoos: avoid anything that costs less than a tank of gas, done by a San Diegan with the word “Tiger” in his name…
