The stories behind these ink-tastic tattoos
By Naythan T.
Did you know that many students and teachers around have tattoos? And that these tattoos have significant meanings behind them?
Junior Harleen M. doesn’t only have tattoos – she is a tattoo artist herself.
She really enjoys being able to tattoo others. She said, “I feel like it’s a blessing lowkey being able to tattoo people and have my artwork out on people’s bodies.”
She said it’s like “leaving a message.”
With the enjoyment of being able to tattoo people also comes with the struggle of some clients and their pain tolerance.
Harleen shared a recent experience she had with a client.
She said, “like I was tatting her and I guess it hurt her a lot and she kicked me on accident. She was, like, apologizing so much, and I was, like, it’s ok ”.
She said that if you decide that you want to get a tattoo, you can ask your tattoo artist for breaks if the pain is too much.
The problem with being able to tattoo yourself is that, if you want to take a break, you may also forget to complete the tattoo .She talks about her experience tattooing herself. “I could just stop whenever I wanted, so I would, I would stop and take a break and just forget about it,” she said.
Junior Erick S., who has two tattoos, one on his shoulder and the other on his back, luckily didn’t have a problem with any pain.
He said, “At first I was low-key scared of the pain tolerance, but in reality it really didn’t hurt.”
Erick thinks that most tattoos don’t actually hurt, it just depends on where you get them.
His concern wasn’t the pain — it was getting support from his family to get tattooed. Erick said his grandparents didn’t have a problem with him getting tattoos as a junior. He said, ”I received tons of support. It was amazing, not gonna lie”.
Erick’s two tattoos are symbols of protection and safety.
He explained the meaning behind the tattoos. ”It’s sacred to my family, cuz it’s like a protection from evil and within the negativity that I wont accept,” he said.
Erick plans on getting either an angel or a sword with skulls for his third tattoo. The angel tattoo symbolizes faith, inner strength and a connection to a higher power, he said, while the sword with skulls symbolizes being “badass” and “cool.”
English teacher Ms. Ramirez also has tattoos. But, she said didn’t receive support from her father’s side of the family when she got them.
“Specifically my grandma, like, hated tattoos,” she said. “My great grandma always told all the kids that she would disown them or kick them out if they ever got a tattoo. So my dad doesn’t have any tattoos, none of his brothers or sisters have tattoos. And then that grandma doesn’t have any tattoos.”
Either way, Ms. Ramirez went against her family and got a tattoo, which was an infinity sign that reads “strength and serenity.” She said, “I was 15 and my friend was like ‘my dad’s friend does tattoos in the garage, you down?” and I was, like, ‘yea sure’.”
She said her mother was “pissed” about it. But she still doesn’t regret it because she was smart enough to get it as a henna first.
Another tattoo that is meaningful to her is a Tim Burton portrait of herself on her left forearm which, she said, was a long process to get.
She said around 2017 or 2018, she came across a post online that asked if they wanted to be drawn as a Tim Burton character. Ms. Ramirez reached out and told her she was interested, but didn’t receive the illustration until months later. “I never thought about it and then one of my friends became a tattoo artist and I knew I wanted to do a Tim Burton sleeve,” she said.
Ms. Ramirez plans on getting many more tattoos. She shared that she wants to continue getting horror characters, how she wants to finish her Tim Burton sleeve, and how she wants to dedicate her leg to drawings that her students have made.
