Painting Your Body With Ink

Tattoos have been around for over 12,000 years. In Egypt, women were usually the only ones to get tattoos as a way to mark their status as a “dancing lady” (prostitute) or in a few cases, a royal concubine. These tattoos were often on their upper thigh and took shape in deities or dotted designs. However, people in Europe saw them as barbaric. During this time, the prices of tattoos were low and only people of the lower classes got them until the upper classes started seeing them as art. As most things, it didn’t last for long. Tattoos would keep this pattern until the 1960s. Despite their history of marking social status, they have now become a way to decorate our bodies and represent stages in our lives.

Before the invention of tattoo machines, tattoo artists would do it by hand. This meant dipping individual needles in ink and poking the skin thousands of times resulting in a lot of pain for a long time. Hand poked tattoos are also generally less safe and sanitary than ones done by a machine. Despite this, some people do still choose to get them because of spiritual reasons or they may just like them. It’s a different experience. They’re still done today, but it’s often done by someone who specializes in them. They can also be done by teenagers who are feeling rebellious

With the invention of the tattoo machine in the 1890s, getting tattoos became a faster and easier process, but the stigma was still there. Even today there is still a stigma. People think that there has to be this super meaningful reason as to why you got your tattoo, but there doesn’t have to be. You got it because you wanted it; that should be reason enough. Or if someone does get a tattoo that’s meaningful to them, someone else may think it’s not a good reason. As long as you got the tattoo because you wanted to, it shouldn’t be anyone else's business. I got my tattoo at 16 and it has no deep meaning, but that doesn’t make me love it any less. I don’t regret it. There’s a stigma that if you get a tattoo young or get one with no meaning, then you’ll regret it but it’s not true. Only 17% of people who get tattoos regret them and the most common reason is because they got someone's name.

The tattoo is on your body ᠆ not theirs so in the end, their opinion doesn’t matter. Live your life the way you want to without letting anyone else’s opinions hold you back. Tattoos are art and your body is the canvas.