BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Body Art What made you decide to become tattooed?

i went thru a hard time in my life. i promised myself if i was able 2 graduate and go to college id reward myself. i chose a butterfly, to me it starts out as a catepillar that then transforms itself, u know? like a meatmorphosis, thats how i looked at myself.

mine marks a major turning point of recovering from something that took many years, got it when I was 18. A friend of my dads did it for me, the reason is mine alone. I am 36 years old now and still love it, just wish I could see it. I want two more.

I was 16, a junior in high school, when i got my first one. it is a tiger on my left arm. When I was 17, I got a custom design on my left leg. Why? All my tats have and will always have meaning. I have always loved tigers and was also born in the year of the tiger, so it was appropriate. the one on my leg is a cross with a crown of thorns around the top and praying hands at the bottom. When my faith starts getting shaken, I can start looking at it and feel better. Here lately, I need to look at it more. I want all my tattoes to represent or symbolize something in my life and something that I will not regret in 20 years. I'm 18 now and planning on getting my last name across my back in a few months or so. I just make sure that I get something that I won't regret when I'm an old man

I really can't remember my reason for wanting to become tattoo'd. I do know that I've always like looking at tattoos on other people and the beautiful designs and images that they have committed themselves to.

I remember drawing different designs and had friends draw designs for me before I ever got my 1st tattoo. I really wanted a sun and moon for the longest time. For a long while I wanted them together, joined (as was popular around that time, but my love of the sun and moon was more than just "popularity", it was me). And then I wanted them seperate (one over each ovary), but I didn't find any designs that spoke to me..

I love frogs! And my first tattoo ended up being a poison arrow frog crawling up my left calf. The original picture came from a T-shirt I loved dearly and a boyfriend (now ex) drew it on paper. I love my frog. Someday I'll add more color to him, maybe.

And my 2nd and 3rd tattoo's are the sun and moon, inked on the same day.

I have more tattoos that I want, it is just a matter of finding an artist and then going and getting them.

[color:"purple"] [/color] When i was lil' i spent hours with mums eyeliners and makeup and drawin them on, wen i was 15, i painted a big gothic cross on my hip/stomach with unbeknownst to me metal paint, it wudnt come off for weeks, but wen i was 17 i was walkin past, n poped in to have a look and was gunna book a tat, but he said he cud do it then, an hour later i had my tattoo, and id neva go back, im gettin a new one soon, i love them id always wanted one, just needed the timing, i wanted to be a tattooist, but very few here offer appretiships <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />!!!

my big sis was always doodling designs on me and all over our bedroom walls, she moved out when i was 15, 2 years later a friend was drawing on me in a science lesson, i hadly noticed what she was doing as i was sleeping, later people commented on liking my tattoo, i had no idea what they were on about till i caught sight of her doodle on my lower back.
i was going thru a a very difficult time in my life haveing lost a close friend in the bali bombing and suffering with the stress of exams, that weekend i was out in town and walked past the place that adam had got his first tattoo, and decided to go have a look. when i got in there the people terrified me, they're all big fat balding bikers, wearing leather and missing teeth, being only 5'5" although not petite, i came over all unusually shy, until they made me laugh, i showed them a polariod of my friends doodle, and they said theyd could fit me in there and then.
I love it as it symbolises a turning point in my life. i dont regret it and i wouldnt use any other tattoo shop as they're the best, i also got my third tattoo done there, but made a mistake with my second, by going to somewhere in my parents hometown, it came out awful but im soon gettin it updated and expanded, im also in the midst of drawing my next one which i cant wait to get.

l was in my late 30s when l got my first tat it was my wife,s name, the second l got was a design that l saw while on holiday in yarmouth, lm looking for a third but do not know where it will go and of what, l also got both nipples peirced in my late 30s as parents were very old fashioned.

I was 17 and I did it because my step-mother told me not to get one. She said, "proper young ladies do not get tattoos." So that did it for me! lol. I regret not searching better but I did get my first tattoo on my arm and it was a rose. It's been covered over since then. I have 5 tattoos and waiting for the $$ to get more.

i have always loved tattoos. it's an expression of self without a word spoken.
my first is a heart on my outer thigh, my second is 2 humming birds on my chest, my third is a vine of ivy that wraps around my ankle, my fourth and fifth are symbols on each hand just below my thumbs.
i am in the process of getting a sea turtle (cover up for the heart).

i ended up getting a daisy on my left ankle instead of the cover up. got my nipples pierced too.