Am I Too Old To Get My First Tattoo?
Everyone seems to have one, but at some point are you too old to start — what about the kids?
It was 2 am in New York City years ago. We were there for a friend’s birthday, and his wife and I had gone out to get pizza. We passed an all-night tattoo parlor and, in a moment of drunken enthusiasm, went in and asked about getting inked. The guy who worked there was fantastic — he chatted with us, showed us some of his favorite designs, and told us to go home, think about it, and come back the next day if we still wanted a tattoo.
Getting a tattoo that night would have been a bad idea. But I’ve thought of it often since then.
Virtually everywhere I look, people are tattooed. We’re pretty active in the rock climbing community, and tattoos are ubiquitous there. My wife and I often find ourselves scanning the gym for our favorite designs and placements. Admittedly, not all of them are great jobs, but we often find that the ink on those athletic bodies looks terrific.
Similarly, our daughter works in the restaurant industry, and we tend to hang out at the hipper bars and restaurants in the city — everyone is inked. As a matter of fact, a friend who is a photographer said that one of his biggest challenges is funding models for shoots when the requirement is ‘no tattoos.’
