I have always loved tattoos. Even when I was 8 years old I would use a thin black sharpie to draw stars all over my hands.  I thought those stars would for sure be the first tattoo I ever get—three teeny tiny stars on my left hand going from my wrist up to my pinky finger. Alas, that was not my first tattoo, and thank goodness for that. After my phase of drawing my own tattoos, I quickly got into flash tattoos. They were all the rage in middle school and early high school. I would have at least one flash tattoo on my body at all times, and when I ran out of tattoos that I liked, I would beg my friends to let me use theirs. Like I said, young Sophie just loved having some kind of tattoo on her at all times. 

When I was younger, it was not the meaning behind tattoos that really grabbed my interest, but the idea that I could have art anywhere on my body, and it would be permanent. I believe that tattoos are like any other form of art, and they do not necessarily need to have a meaning. They can be an expression of a feeling, or something that you just desire. You could literally see something and be like, “Well damn, I want that on me.” I strongly feel this way about my tattoos. I could lie and say that they all have a long back story and an insightful meaning, but honestly they don’t. Only one of my three tattoos has a true backstory. 

The tattoo I am referring to was my very first. I think one of the main reasons I took so long to think about it was because it was my first. The tattoo is small and simple, but to this day (and it has been over a year and a half) I am still obsessed with it. It is an “S” on my left wrist in my handwriting. I got this tattoo when I was a freshman at BC, and there were a lot of changes going on in my life. For me this tattoo was my way of claiming my own. I was finally in an environment where I truly felt like myself.  My “S” tattoo represents all the things that make me, me, and all that I want to become one day. 

Now, out of my three tattoos, my “S” was the only one that I thought through and planned out.  However, that does not make it any more special to me than the other ones I have—quite the contrary actually. I think part of the beauty of my other tattoos is that they are so spontaneous. One of them I saw on an Instagram post of my favorite blogger and I said, “I have to have it now.” All my friends looked at me like I was crazy, and told me I had to wait. And I waited, but I knew I would get it. I actually waited the full seven months I promised my friends, and on the exact day that marked seven months I walked into the tattoo shop of my hometown and put a tiny ghost tattoo above my left elbow. Not like some creepy ghoul ghost, but a cute baby ghost that I literally adore. I am obsessed with her. I got the ghost tattoo for myself and no one else. I quite literally got it against most everyone else’s wishes and now they (so they say) even love the ghost tattoo. 

My third tattoo I got only a month ago, and I think it is my favorite tattoo story yet. Clearly we have all been booted from school due to the ’Rona, or COVID-19, whatever you wanna call it, and in that week we found out we had to leave, my best friends and I made a list. We made this very special list to mark all of the things we had to squeeze into four days before we had to leave our favorite place. One of those things was getting tattoos. My BFF and roomie Liv was going to get a tattoo she had been planning since freshman year, and I was undecided but knew I was going to get one too. I had been dying to get a tattoo on my inner elbow (sounds weird but I swear it's a cute spot). I decided to take inspiration from the one thing in my life that was not completely destroyed due to a pandemic: my best friends. When my now best friends and I made our group chat freshman year, we called it “girl gang” and added lightning bolts at the end. I don’t really know why we did at the time, but in my mind it has become an all encompassing embodiment of my 5 best friends (sisters, soulmates, ya know whatever word works for you). So that was that, I knew I wanted something that reminded me of my friends, and that was the lightning bolt. 

My tattoos make me happy, and that’s what they’re meant to do. They are not meant for anyone else because they are on your body, and you are the one who gets to live life with them. You get to take art, that you choose, everywhere you go. I love showing people my tattoos, and even if I get some reactions like, “WTF were you thinking” (which often happens) I can honestly say I don’t even care. My tattoos make me happy.  The opinion of other people could not taint that if they tried, and it definitely won’t make me stop growing my tiny collection of art. ;)

XO’s