ASK MICAH "A Sign of Love"

Dear Ask Micah,

               My boyfriend wants to get matching tattoos. I don't think that I want to, but he is pressuring me to go through with it. He said it'll be a sign of our love. How can I tell my boyfriend that I don't want a tattoo without causing his feelings to be hurt?

Mandy

Dear Mandy,

               Your body belongs to you and only you get to decide whether or not you want to brand it with a permanent marking. Who cares if his feelings get hurt? If he's going to pitch a fit simply because you aren't comfortable with getting a tattoo then he's pretty much showing you that your relationship isn't very serious or important to him. A tattoo IS NOT a sign of love. A tattoo is a sign of a tattoo. The only way anyone would ever know that it was a sign of love would be if the two of you were together and held up your tattoos side by side and told the observer that they were a sign of your love. In any other situation you would just be a girl with an art rendering on her body. I have two friends that were a couple and got matching tattoos on their arms. Then they broke up. Now, for the rest of their lives, whenever they look down at their arms they are reminded of the love that didn't last and they get the fun of explaining that choice to their new love interests. Most people know how I feel about tattoos. I don't like them. I know to some that makes me a fuddy-duddy, but I personally don't like anything permanent that I can't remove on my body. I also find them trite and rather common now. So many people have a tattoo now so you're not being wild and crazy or expressing individuality when you get one. To me it's like saying, "Hey hey look at me, I'm different! I have a tattoo like everybody else!" The funniest tattoos to me are the Chinese symbols. People love to say, "Its a personal symbol that has a special significance for me." My thoughts on that are, "It's on your shoulder where you can't see it so the special meaning doesn't mean anything if you can't glimpse it. Also it's in Chinese. So for all you know it could really mean 'Fat Girl'. And you picked it out of a book at a tattoo parlor, so there are dozens, if not hundreds, of people walking around sporting the same symbol of 'personal significance' that you find so meaningful." Don't get the tattoo Mandy. And if your boyfriend needs a symbol of love to show the world, it's called a wedding ring.            

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