I have tattoos.: Husband, firefighter, EMT

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Husband, firefighter, EMT

I am a 33-year-old husband, firefighter, and EMT. And yes, I have tattoos. I feel that tattoos are a way for someone to express who they are, where they have been, and tell the story of their life. I have a Star of Life on my right arm. It is something I am proud of, and can be proud of to tell my grandkids someday about what it means and what I did. This tattoo also has a deeper meaning than some my realize, as it was still healing on September 11th, 2001. I also have a Manx Crest on my left arm, which has the Manx Gaelic "Whichever Way You Throw Me, I Will Stand." I say to everyone out there, express yourself. And no matter what life may throw at you, stand.

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I have tattoos.

The most recent research shows 40 percent of Americans between 26 and 40 have at least one tattoo. That's nearly half of us. Furthermore, 36 percent of people between 18 and 25 do. Normal people. Successful people. Smart people. Truly, anyone.

Yet outdated stigmas and discrimination still exists, based solely on some people's unfounded misconceptions about the way a tattooed person looks -- completely disregarding the statistics, individual characters and the stories behind the tattoos.

Yes, tattoos are a choice. So is practicing a narrow perspective.

Perhaps the increase in tattoos amplifies some people's already prevailing prejudgments about people who look different than them. It's so much easier to write off a person based on something you, on the surface level, do not understand than it is to actually consider what lies underneath, below the skin.

This website was created after I witnessed an incident of discrimination against the "tattoo demographic," as a whole. This website is intended to help educate and dispel myths that you can even begin to classify people with tattoos in one "demographic," much less as all trouble-makers, all out for attention or in any way worth diminishing based on assumptions; no one deserves that.

Ultimately, this website is not even about tattoos, but it is about the real stories behind each person's surface. This website is not intended to convince anyone that they should get a tattoo, or that they should even like tattoos if they don't choose to get one themselves.

After all, as the saying goes, the only difference between people with tattoos and people without tattoos is that people with tattoos don't care whether or not other people have tattoos.