My friend Candy and I decided on my eighteenth birthday, that we were going to go and get a tattoo in honor of our adulthood. Candy knew exactly what kind of tattoo she wanted, but I was undecided. Tigger had been her favorite character for ever, and she wanted to be reminded of him permanently. I somehow didn't believe that a child-like image of Tigger was the correct way to celebrate adulthood, but hey, that's Candy! I wanted to make sure that if I was going to be permanently marked for life, it had to be by something meaningful. I didn't know what, but maybe something that said "this is me". We arrived at our local tattoo parlor an hour early, to look through the tattoo books, there were stacks, and I was hoping that by searching the tattoo books I would find what I wanted.
The first tattoo books I glanced through had some incredibly scary looking artwork that I couldn't imagine anyone would ever want. Apparently, people did though. I wanted something feminine and simple that would look attractive on my ankle. I wasn't really sure what exactly would represent me for years and years but I knew those tattoo books would show me something perfect.
For the first 30 minutes, I thumbed through pages of hideous tattoos as well as really brilliant ones. Still, nothing jumped out at me and said "Pick me." I was feeling incredibly discouraged. One of the tattoo artists joined me in my search, asking me tons of questions about what I liked and my beliefs. Finally, after trying to explain who I was for 5 minutes, he stood up and dug through some of the tattoo books that I have not yet had the opportunity to look through. He flipped through several pages as well until he smiled. He brought it over to me and pointed. I smiled as well.
When he showed me the picture of the small dolphin, depicted in all the colors of the rainbow, I was ecstatic. I loved dolphins, in fact they were my favorite animal, I loved the ocean and I was an artist so the rainbow colors were really me. Finally all those tattoo books had yielded something that was just right for me. My perfect tattoo!
Some time ago I had the opportunity to look through tattoo books again. This after a friend asked me to help her find the perfect tattoo. She seemed to be having the same problem I experienced, and no matter how many tattoo books we looked at, we couldn't find the right one. Finally glancing through one of the tattoo books bore fruit, and we found her perfect tattoo. She was happy, I was happy that she was happy and if you want the perfect tattoo, I would suggest you seek the help of tattoo books to find it.