Design Your Own Tattoo
By Michael Mantis
Behind every tattoo, lies a story. If it is good or bad, it is a personal story that only the holder of the artwork can distribute. I do not think I ever met someone who did not have a story to share, especially when it came to their art. It is always annoying when you want to see your tattoos, because there are still connotations trying to link tattoos with unscrupulous people.
My stepfather died in 1994. This left my mother numb, and looking for something to relieve numbness tel. Therefore, at the age of forty-four years, my mother received her first tattoo. It was a flower, entwined design of thorns and roses, which meant the good times (pink) and the most horrible moments (spines) of his life. For her, it took away the numbness, and makes her feel that she could still feel. I also got my first tattoo with her. I was twenty-one years, and a very self-hating point in my life. I always said I was beautiful, but - like many insecure young women of my age - I do not think so.
So what better way to feel beautiful, to put an image of beauty on myself? I chose a fairy - a passionate looking woman who was not only naked but also stood on a rose - wings. Better yet, the tattoo looks like a butterfly from afar. The next time I had a tattoo, I wanted another fairy. However, I could not find an etching that I liked. Fortunately, one of the tattooists happened to be a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago (I grew up in suburban Chicago area).
The tattoo artist has an original design of a fairy, and his long body, which makes the design of a 
cherub move forward, as children figure, a voluptuous, breathtaking beauty with raven hair . She too is a fairy naked, but all the "bits" are covered very artistic. I had a six year old student of mine pointed out, crying: "Eww - She 's naked!" Without a pause in my reading lesson, I said: "That's art, honey." (I wore a Halloween costume that did not cover my upper leg - where the tattoo is.) Later my co-teacher pulled me aside and commented: "I love that you said a tattoo is an art!"
You do not need a book to tell you what a tattoo means to you. The total experience tattoo art comes from within you. I do not feel the same way I did before. A decade of life experiences gave me confidence I was lacking. However, for the moment I had no esteem for me love, I let my tattoos do the talking for me. I still love my two tattoos, and sometimes wonder if there are more tattoos in my future. Be assured that I have a story behind the next too!
