Bryan Thompson: You Need A Tattoo

October 18, 2007

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My first and only experience with body art was back when I was a hyper six years old. At the time Patti LaBelle had a hit song about her "New Attitude."

I guess I wanted one too. So I got me a new "tatto-tude." I decided on polka-dots, so I could look just like a lady bug. I went in to my mom's purse, found a black marker and for the next hour and a half covered my entire body in little black specks.

When I was done I proudly marched out to the living room, stark naked and speckled from head to toe. By this point my poor mom had already been through a lot with my subversive creativity, but this prank was the last straw. She was not impressed with the art work. She screamed and then she scrubbed.

Boy, was I miserable in that bathtub, all pruny and raw and red. It took hours but the dots were finally gone and so was my desire to ever get a tattoo. All these years later, my cool and handsome younger brother Michael LOVES them. We are so different, me and him.

I'm blonde, his hair is almost black. He's musical. Me, not so much.
I'm tattoo-free and he's inked. I admire the body art he has chosen.
Down his arm are big illustrated toy blocks that spell out "Bailey," for my adorable niece.

Tattoos are super popular. The reason I don't have any are because I have 2 issues that get in the way. First, I hate pain. Second, I just can't commit to a design. Something I'd like today I would probably loathe tomorrow and lasering the tattoo away would involve more pain. So I am content to keep my art on paper and off my skin and I'll settle for admiring the tattoos of others.

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