Suburban moms with 'Tats'....

If you think this is a blog about suburban moms and their 'tatas'... you misread. Please redirect your browser.

Nope, I'm talking about those suburban, stay at home, cookie baking, mini-van driving mamas... with a tattoo. You see it all the time these days. Heck, I can't go to the park with my kids without seeing at least 2 or 3 other moms, bending over with their 'tramp stamps' showing, or seeing the flash of a butterfly on an ankle.

And, in case you missed it (or you don't know me...), (or you haven't seen me in the last 13 years...), I am one of those very women. That's right, my friends.... my inner left ankle is 'inked'.

My personal tattoo story is not very interesting or provocative, but surprisingly enough, it DID involve alcohol of the 'tequila' variety. (huge shock, I know!) It was a 'what a great way to finish out this hellish year of middle school' (okay, now, I wasn't IN middle school, mind you! Geez...) And after having a few margaritas with some of my teacher pals, we decided we should all go get tattoos!

So, we trooped on over to Atomic Tattoo... where I picked out a giant skull with a snake coming out of one of the eyesockets. Fortunately my friends were NOT as drunk as I was, and talked me out of it. ;-)

I settled on the cutest little ladybug... had them shrink it as small as they could without completely losing detail (hey! is that a melanoma on your ankle?!!), and the tattoo artist proceeded to make me wish I'd chosen a bubble bath, or a shopping trip or even a root canal to celebrate the end of the school year! Yes... it hurt. The vibration on that ankle bone... damn! Sets my teeth on edge just to think of it, 13 years later. (I am a weinie, so please don't comment about how you got your entire back tattooed with the Gettysburg Address, and you didn't flinch once.)

Oh, and here's the rub... do you think anyone else actually GOT a tattoo that day?!! Of course not! Okay, in their defense, it can't be very encouraging to watch someone sweating bullets and crying over a tattoo that is no bigger than a dime.

So, seeing all those moms at the park, sporting their tattoos, made me wonder what their stories are? I can almost guarantee that none of us pictured ourselves, years later, pushing our little ones on the swings, swapping mommy 'tales'. We all thought we'd stay young, cool and hip forever (okay, at least, I did!)

Do I regret my little tiny tattoo? I'd like to say 'never', but it actually depends... on the day, the place, the time, the oufit. Most days I don't even think about it. It's just a part of me now. And its a part of my past... inked into my memory.