Alex Lella's Blog

Tattoos

An entry on tattoos. Now you're talking. You see, some years ago, when I was employed in a call center. I had a motherly boss who was really into tattoos. She was always talking about tattoos and somewhere along the line, we got to talking about the possibility that I might get one. Thing was, once I started considering the possibility, I began to really want one. I started reading those tattoo magazines and looking at the pictures of the beautiful women with tattoos all over their bodies. I think on some level, I was fantasizing that if I had a tattoo, I would somehow be closer to having one of them for a girlfriend.

Still, when I investigated the price of tattoos, I was a little shocked. On a side note, I said, "Who are these people who can afford this, but have jobs where it's permissable. They're to be envied."

Meanwhile, my motherly boss had another problem which was smoking. She did it too much. I was trying to get her to quit, so one day I said to her, "Every week that you go without smoking, I will--"

At that point, she interrupted and said. "I'm not sure I want to hear the rest of this."

I continued anyway. "I will get another tattoo."

"Oh really?" she said. "You realize that you have a right to get as many tattoos as you want. You don't need excuses from me."

Wow, she had me figured.

Anyway, not long after that, I made the appointment at the tattoo parlor and did it. There was no symbolism. I just picked a flash image of a dragon reading a book entitled, "Humans and Other Recipes" and had it done on my left forearm.

Anyway, not long after that, I visited my parents for the first time with the tattoo. I ended up telling them that I got it to keep my boss from smoking even though that was kind of a lie.

So there you have it. The tattoo is still on my forearm. My own take on tattoos is that you have to want them a real lot. I mean they're expensive, the process is painful, and once you've got them, you can't get rid of them.