Growing up, I was never really the girl who knew that she wanted tattoos. I actually was scared of them, and scared of the thought of having someone put something on my body for the rest of my life. Then I turned 18, and my thoughts on tattoos completely changed. It was a year or two after my father had gotten his last tattoo and I knew that I had desperately wanted one. The idea in my head of what I wanted my first tattoo to be was a moon and a cloud to represent the night sky.
The reason why I wanted the “night sky” to be tattooed on me was because of my mom. My mom’s name is Cielo, which is Spanish for “the sky.” Since to me, a moon and a cloud represent the sky, I wanted something that had to do with my mom tattooed on my body. So I figured something that represented my mom’s name would be perfect. When I got my tattoo, it was a couple of weeks after my mom came back home from working in Texas. It was May of my senior year of high school and not only did I want a big change before I went on to college, but I hadn’t seen my mom since October and I was missing her terribly. The reason why I love my first tattoo is that it reminds me of the love that I have for my mom, and the fact that even though we were apart for seven months, everything that she does for me, she does because she loves me.
My other tattoo always reminds me to enjoy life and to be happy and be positive, and think about all the wonderful things that life has to offer. A famous Spaniard named Marc Anthony has a song titled, “Vivir Mi Vida,” which translates to, “live my life.” This song is my go-to song to make me feel better whenever I’m sad, whenever I am crying, or whenever I just need a quick pick me up. This song reminds me that we only have one life and that we need to enjoy it to the fullest. The song has made me feel better in some of my saddest moments, which is why exactly a year after I got my first tattoo, I knew that that is what I wanted my second tattoo to be.
My second tattoo ended up being my favorite, not because of the meaning, but because of the simplicity of it. It also really does its job to remind me to live my life. One day, in college, a couple of friends of mine and I were at Trash Can Falls, which is a watering hole located close to Appalachian State University’s campus. At Trash Can Falls, they have a rock that you can climb up on and then jump into the river below. Not being afraid of heights, I decided to climb onto the top. It wasn’t until I was directly above the river and saw just how high up we were that I started to get nervous. I was about to turn around and climb back down instead of jumping, when a girl asked me what my tattoo meant. I told her that it was Spanish for, “I’m going to live my life.” She said, “well there you go, what’s a better way to live life and enjoy it, than by jumping off a rock?”  I smiled at her, and thought to myself that she was right. I walked to the edge of the rock and jumped off.
Finally, I love my tattoos because they are something that I get to share with my father. Some of my friends have parents who look down upon tattoos, and one of my friends even has parents that told her that if she were to get tattoos then they would stop paying for her college. My father is the opposite. He is the one that has paid for both of my tattoos. The neat thing, I think, is the fact that the same tattoo artist, Noel from Lucky 13 Tattoo Parlor in Mooresville NC, that did both of my tattoos did two of my dad’s last tattoos. Having the same person who did both of mine also do my dad’s just makes my tattoos feel more special. Despite the stereotypes against them, I love my tattoos. They remind me of the love that I have for my mom and the love that she has for me; they remind me that life is short and that we should spend it enjoying every second and doing things that we normally wouldn’t do; but most of all, they remind me of my father and the special bond that we have.
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