Tattoos

I was out the other night with my buddy, and we were talking to a couple girls at a bar. There were three girls in total, but one was doing a great impression of a pissed off mute chick. The subject of tattoos came up and I was asked if I had any, I said I did and before the girl who asked the question could answer, the girl who had been silent chimed in. "You know those tattoos are just gonna look disgusting when you're 70 right?"

I'm telling you guys, it took all the will power I had to not say, "You know your face looks disgusting NOW right?"

But I didn't. I refrained. In fact, I just smiled and nodded and said something about maybe not making it to 70 and carried on having a conversation without the Grinch who stole Christmas.

This little anecdote got me to thinking about what my tattoos will look like when I'm older, because I've heard that argument before - and it's not wrong. My family crest will be a great impression of "Starry Night" by the time I'm blowing out the candles on my 90th birthday cake.

Though, here's my rebuttal. Since I was 16, I've dedicated my entire life to baseball. That does mean that I've spent a lot of time getting into shape, and eating healthy (well not healthy, but eating), and overall trying to maintain a level of fitness that will support the game. But conversely, it's been 7 years of 11 months out of the year, training and sliding and throwing and hitting and all that fun stuff that comes with it. By the time I'm 70 I'm gonna be far more concerned if I will be able to lift my arm to shake hands than what my tattoos are gonna look like. I think every bone in my body already cracks, and I'm 23. I can crack all my fingers, my ankle, my wrist, my neck - if they had Olympics I'd definitely medal.

Finally, the disgusting blue drinks, she-devil was drinking that night are going to do far more harm than my body art will. And so, I will keep decorating my body in the way I see fit, and always taking care to follow my mother's rule (actually her rule is don't get any) that all my tattoos must be covered with a t-shirt. Can do mom - I'm going for the leg next anyway.