ten years of cattoo, or a comparison of a tattoo i got 10 years ago and what it looks like today
"that's going to age poorly" is a common refrain that's projected by people - who themselves are probably aging poorly - in the comments of any videos or photos of tattoos. or "you'll regret that" and (my favorite) "what does your mother think of those". my tattoos are pretty innocent, i only have a handful of them, and they're all on my shoulders and above the elbow so they're often not even visible. i love them and i'll get more.
yesterday i was going through photos from november 2014, just to see what i was up to 10 years ago, and it brought to my attention that the day after thanksgiving was the 10-year anniversary of my first tattoo, which we call cattoo. this has become a tradition, where the day or so after thanksgiving, my friends and i would go get tattoos together. it was a tradition that, like a few others of mine, went on indefinite hiatus when covid hit.
anyway, if you wanted to see what a 10-year-old cattoo on the back of my arm looks like compared to the day it was created, here you go:
my inspiration for the tattoo was m.c. escher's dodecahedron drawings and my black cat jefrey (rip). i'm gatekeeping the artist because i am afraid this post will enter some weird space that may bring negative attention to both of us because some of you are fucking weird. from my perspective, the only one that matters here, they did a great job at taking my vision and turning into beautiful art i literally carry with me everywhere. i even went back to them the next year to get another dodecahedron on my other arm.
tattoos, like any circumstance (except death, perhaps), is only permanent if you allow them to be. i've heard it's painful and expensive to remove them, but it's a common and more and more available option. i only say this so that those of you grown adults who want a tattoo but get told "it's going to age poorly" consider that aging itself is a blessing and privilege not everyone gets. i'm over a decade older than the age my mom passed away - i imagine she'd love my tattoos, by the way. so why avoid adorning the surface level of your skin because you're afraid of what it will look like in 10, 20, 30 years? do your research, stay safe and clean, and live laugh love out of the comment section.
xoxo jenn
