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To Get a Tattoo

 

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To get a tattoo

 

is to sit in the chair

humming to distract yourself

from the droning needle

who is supplying the harmony

and isn’t even near your skin yet

 

To get a tattoo

 

is to scan the pages

of the artist’s portfolio

and feign an interest in

bare-breasted mermaids and

commercialized kanji

 

To get a tattoo

 

is to listen patiently to the artist

as he tells you about his four year old

who wants “love” and “hate”

on her knuckles

just like Daddy

 

To get a tattoo

 

is to reach out and shake hands

with being eighteen

and promise your twenties

that you’ll spend every day

on a skateboard you don’t own yet

 

To get a tattoo

 

is to realize that your well-meaning mother

will begin her search for a wedding dress

that will cover your indecent bicep

and save your reputation

before you even have a boyfriend

 

To get a tattoo

 

is to defend the poetic meaning

of the dolphins on your lower back

on a first date five years later

with your future husband

who changes the subject

 

To get a tattoo

 

is to guarantee to yourself

that you will lie to your future children

and tell them that “That’s what happens

when you let your friends draw on you.

It doesn’t come off. Ever.”

 

To get a tattoo

 

is to be annoyed by it

twenty years later

because black and pink stars

encircling your wrist

are a pain in the ass to hide

 

To get a tattoo

 

is to bask in the glory of freedom

as you trade your blood for ink

and scream in the face of insecurity,

“Take that!, you haggard beast!”

all the while wondering if you were right

 

to get a tattoo

 

Bio:

Erica Nottestad is a recent graduate of UWGB and has been published twice in UWGB’s literary journal, Sheepshead Review.