I find one trend in particular truly confusing and unnecessary with my/our generation. A trend that I personally do not and probably will not understand.
Please, if you are able, explain to me why tattoos among teenagers in high school are so popular? Especially those under 18. It feels as though a quarter of the student body has a tattoo and half of the students without a tattoo, want one. It’s something I feel has grown increasingly more and more common, and not just in our school per say.
Call me old fashion, but I have no interest in getting “inked” or getting a “tat”. I understand that some people get tattoos for significant events, people, or things that have affected them; I think that this is at least understandable. However, there are some things that I see teenagers getting lately that just completely dumbfound me.
I remember when my cousin was a freshman in college; he wanted to get a full back tattoo, one that he thought was really cool at the time. His mother however told him that if he went and got it done, he would be cut off financially. She compromised and told him if he waited two years and thought about this tattoo, she would let him get it. Still to this day my cousin remains un-inked, and he is glad to have waited it out because he wants nothing to do with that particular tattoo, nor with any.
It makes me wonder how many people in our school would still go out and get the tattoos they have now if they tried that process. Two years without a tattoo compared to the rest of your life with one is actually quite minimal.
The thing however that I think bugs me the most are what the girls in high school are getting. A wind catcher tattoo on your ribs? Really? It doesn’t make you more indy or hippie if that’s what you were shooting for. It’s absolutely pointless in my opinion, and far too overrated. And guys, did you forget what your last name was and have to have it inked on you in order to remember it? And Chinese symbols? Do you even know Chinese?
I really hope someone reading this feels my frustration.
Some call it self-expression or body art, but most of it I just look at and see it as pointless. I wish some kids in our school would try the two year rule. I just feel that some teenagers don’t realize that these super cute or super cool tattoos aren’t like the ones we used to get out of our cereal boxes.
In the words of Rollo: “That ain’t no Etch-A-Sketch. This is one doodle that can’t be un-did, homeskillet.”
