As a 17 year old girl with three tattoos, I’ve got a lot of questions regarding them. Some practical, some inquisitive & some downright stupid!
Here I’ll try to list the ones that I get really often:

  1. “Did it hurt?” (Variation: “Didn’t it hurt?”) I get asked this one the most, & it is by far the most annoying. Yes of course it hurt. It hurt a lot. What did you think a needle piercing you multiple times per second would feel like? A feather?
  2. “Is it permanent?” I am so tempted to say, “No, it’s temporary!” A person who has tattoos or has seen tattoos up-close can always tell the difference between a permanent & temporary tattoo. But obviously not everyone has tattoos. So I get asked this question. Why do they ask this? Because I am not at all fashionable by modern standards. I accessorize rarely (due to my laziness). I first colored my hair about a month ago. I still wear spectacles (I tried contact lenses once but wasted about 3 of them & didn’t manage to get any to stay on my eye! So you get the idea… With the type of girl that I am, tattoos do not add up. So the more fashionable daily-makeup wearing types eye’s get popped & they feel compelled to ask whether it’s real.
  3. “Can I touch it?” I got this bizarre request only once, right after the said person (a classmate) asked me the previous question. When I answered her in the affirmative, she proceeded to bend & observe & touch the two tattoos on my legs. In a class filled with students. To call it weird would be an understatement.
  4. “How much did it cost?” (Variation: “It must’ve been expensive!”) Yes it was expensive. You have no idea how expensive it was. I could have legally bought an iPhone 3G from India with the money. Or got a dSLR. Or a mid-range laptop. When I actually tell people the price, they react to it in a variety of ways. They either: gasp, laugh it off or just plainly refuse to believe me. Only people who have tattoos them self know that I’m not joking.

And before anybody asks me again, here are pictures for your viewing pleasure 😉
Needless to say, I love my tats & am extremely proud of them. x