Kevin Gallagher
6/17/14
English 100
My First Major Decision
I’m in the middle of North Philadelphia sitting on a couch sweating in the middle of winter with a house that doesn't have heat, shaking because I'm so nervous. Thoughts were running through my mind, should I do it? How badly will it hurt? What is my mom going to do to me? Then all of a sudden it just stop as soon as my friend put the needle in my skin, I knew I was making the right decision.
When I was an early teenager I always knew I was going to get a tattoo, even though my mother strongly disapproved. She said if I ever came home with a tattoo I would get kicked out of the house and she would basically dis owned me. Even with that thought in my head I still wanted one. When I turned seventeen that’s when the ideas started to flow, I would think of a new tattoo design every night but none really stood out to me or thought any ideas were good enough to be on my body for the rest of my life. This is also the age where I was sober.
At this time I would always joke with my mother saying “can’t wait to get a tattoo tonight” then she would respond very angrily with some hurtful words and threats. The reason my mom is extremely against tattoos is because her two brothers have many tattoos and she just thinks they are very “trashy”. Even growing up with her telling me all this stuff from her experience I still wanted one. Maybe I wanted to stand out in my family or maybe I just wanted to rebel but I honestly just wanted one just so I can it experience it in my own way.
When I was in my last year of high school I started to go to my cousin’s house in Philadelphia to hang out with his friends. I always hung out with older people, like two to three years older than me. I just liked that age group. When they graduated high school I still had two years left so after that I started to hang out with people my own age. I wanted to stand out as much as I could because I stood out of my friends as being the youngest of the group. So I was thinking to myself how could I stand out to kids my own age?
One night I went to my cousin’s house in Philadelphia where everyone was drinking and having a good time, I didn’t drink but I was still having fun, hanging out with people that I haven’t seen since I moved from that area in third grade. Well one of my cousin’s friend had a tattoo gun and would give out tattoos sometimes, they weren’t the best tattoos but they were sterile and they were decent. When I went over there one night I decided that I wanted one, I made sure he cleaned the needle and knew what he could draw so I just said “okay let’s do this!” When my cousin’s friend was doing the tattoo I was very shaky and unstable, I was bitching and moaning about the pain even though it really wasn’t that bad. I had so much anxiety just by thinking about the pain that it really wasn’t that bad at all, kind of like a thousand bee stings all at once and it all in the same spot. They had a lot of fun with the tattoo when they were coloring it in. About halfway through I was nervous and scared. I asked myself if I really wanted this but it was too late to back out now. I'm now at the point thinking if i don't go through with this i will regret it more not finishing the tattoo instead of having it half done. They also were having a lot of fun coloring the tattoo in, they drew a “666” in the tattoo and a pentagram and a lot of other dumb stuff. My cousin also took a turn coloring it in. Even to this day you can see all the inappropriate stuff they drew in the tattoo even though it’s all colored in.
Now this was my first tattoo and I am only seventeen so I got it on my thigh so I could hide it from my mother easier. I didn’t want to get kicked out of the house because I knew she would be that drastic. She found out later when I was eighteen because I felt so comfortable and one day I got out of the shower and put my shorts on and she just noticed it. She didn’t freak out but she seemed very disappointed in me which is way worse than her being mad at me. She got used to it through and learned to live with it when I got more tattoos. My third tattoo I decided to do something special for her, I wanted a tattoo that she would like. So I surprised her with a mom tattoo on my chest, she loves that one.
So the mission was complete, I was one of the first one in my class to get a tattoo and later on I got one that my mother really enjoyed. If you are wondering what my first tattoo was, it was the Wu-Tang symbol and many tattoos later it’s still my favorite one. Maybe because it was my first and I got it with my friends all around me and it was one of the most memorable nights from high school.
6/17/14
English 100
My First Major Decision
I’m in the middle of North Philadelphia sitting on a couch sweating in the middle of winter with a house that doesn't have heat, shaking because I'm so nervous. Thoughts were running through my mind, should I do it? How badly will it hurt? What is my mom going to do to me? Then all of a sudden it just stop as soon as my friend put the needle in my skin, I knew I was making the right decision.
When I was an early teenager I always knew I was going to get a tattoo, even though my mother strongly disapproved. She said if I ever came home with a tattoo I would get kicked out of the house and she would basically dis owned me. Even with that thought in my head I still wanted one. When I turned seventeen that’s when the ideas started to flow, I would think of a new tattoo design every night but none really stood out to me or thought any ideas were good enough to be on my body for the rest of my life. This is also the age where I was sober.
At this time I would always joke with my mother saying “can’t wait to get a tattoo tonight” then she would respond very angrily with some hurtful words and threats. The reason my mom is extremely against tattoos is because her two brothers have many tattoos and she just thinks they are very “trashy”. Even growing up with her telling me all this stuff from her experience I still wanted one. Maybe I wanted to stand out in my family or maybe I just wanted to rebel but I honestly just wanted one just so I can it experience it in my own way.
When I was in my last year of high school I started to go to my cousin’s house in Philadelphia to hang out with his friends. I always hung out with older people, like two to three years older than me. I just liked that age group. When they graduated high school I still had two years left so after that I started to hang out with people my own age. I wanted to stand out as much as I could because I stood out of my friends as being the youngest of the group. So I was thinking to myself how could I stand out to kids my own age?
One night I went to my cousin’s house in Philadelphia where everyone was drinking and having a good time, I didn’t drink but I was still having fun, hanging out with people that I haven’t seen since I moved from that area in third grade. Well one of my cousin’s friend had a tattoo gun and would give out tattoos sometimes, they weren’t the best tattoos but they were sterile and they were decent. When I went over there one night I decided that I wanted one, I made sure he cleaned the needle and knew what he could draw so I just said “okay let’s do this!” When my cousin’s friend was doing the tattoo I was very shaky and unstable, I was bitching and moaning about the pain even though it really wasn’t that bad. I had so much anxiety just by thinking about the pain that it really wasn’t that bad at all, kind of like a thousand bee stings all at once and it all in the same spot. They had a lot of fun with the tattoo when they were coloring it in. About halfway through I was nervous and scared. I asked myself if I really wanted this but it was too late to back out now. I'm now at the point thinking if i don't go through with this i will regret it more not finishing the tattoo instead of having it half done. They also were having a lot of fun coloring the tattoo in, they drew a “666” in the tattoo and a pentagram and a lot of other dumb stuff. My cousin also took a turn coloring it in. Even to this day you can see all the inappropriate stuff they drew in the tattoo even though it’s all colored in.
Now this was my first tattoo and I am only seventeen so I got it on my thigh so I could hide it from my mother easier. I didn’t want to get kicked out of the house because I knew she would be that drastic. She found out later when I was eighteen because I felt so comfortable and one day I got out of the shower and put my shorts on and she just noticed it. She didn’t freak out but she seemed very disappointed in me which is way worse than her being mad at me. She got used to it through and learned to live with it when I got more tattoos. My third tattoo I decided to do something special for her, I wanted a tattoo that she would like. So I surprised her with a mom tattoo on my chest, she loves that one.
So the mission was complete, I was one of the first one in my class to get a tattoo and later on I got one that my mother really enjoyed. If you are wondering what my first tattoo was, it was the Wu-Tang symbol and many tattoos later it’s still my favorite one. Maybe because it was my first and I got it with my friends all around me and it was one of the most memorable nights from high school.