March 30, 2012 - Tattoo

March 30, 2012

So Tyler got a tattoo. It's a big tattoo. It's covering the underside of his left forearm. The good thing is, he told me he was going to do it before he did. The bad thing is, I told him not to do it and he did it anyway. We argued quite a bit about it. He is not 18 yet. He has 2 more months until he turns 18, and he should wait until then. I told him this is an impulsive decision and a permanent one. I reminded him that schizophrenia causes one to act on impulse and I want him to wait. His argument was that he's been thinking about this tattoo for a few months now, and he still wants it. This much is true. My argument was that he didn't know what font he wanted it in and that's a big decision. Also, the tattoo artist was one of his friends who got the equipment for her birthday, and hadn't been tattooing long. I didn't want him to end up with a crappy prison tattoo! I told him repeatedly that he doesn't have my permission to get it, and I do not want him to do it. He said he was going to anyway. I told him about how important sterility is, even down to the ink. He assured me that everything was brand new. I figure if I can't prevent it, at least I should teach him to be safe.

Sure enough, at 5:30 a.m. I got a text from Tyler with a picture of his new tattoo. He is over the moon about it, and can't wait to finish it up. It's not the worst tattoo I've ever seen, so I suppose I can be grateful about that. At least he didn't get a big nazi symbol.