I turned 18 a few weeks ago and I started to think about what being 18 is like. It’s no different at all. I have no need for buying porn, lottery tickets, or cigarettes. HOWEVER, I am of legal age to get a tattoo. I thought it would’ve been funny if I went to the same tattoo artist that did some of Illene’s tattoos so Morgan took me to Texas Tattoo Emporium before going to work.
Antone was the guy that tattooed me. It turns out that he’s a Vietnamese guy that grew up in Texas and really really likes punk rock. Well, nowadays he says he listens to mostly Norwegian metal music but that didn’t stop him from getting me a super awesome mega deal on my tattoo.
What did I get, you ask? It’s a Dr Pepper bottle wearing a leather jacket and in one hand he is holding an ice cream cone and in the other hand he is holding an ice cream scoop. Antone actually caught the reference/parody to Minor Threat’s “Bottled Violence” artwork on the back of their self-titled album.
Some people speculated why I got an ice cream cone and an ice cream scoop in the dude’s hands. Michael aka Boogdish came up with these three guesses:
1. I really like ice cream.
2. It’s a reference to Ian Mackaye’s days as an ice cream scooper for Haagen-Daz.
3. I drew a personal connection of ice cream from Minor Threat’s music.
Those were all very good guesses but they’re also all wrong. I’m an ice cream scooper at Amy’s Ice Creams and I think it’s a pretty awesome job. Yep, that’s pretty much why I got ice cream paraphernalia tattooed on me.
Morgan had to leave me at the tattoo shop about a half hour before I finished because she had to go to work. She is also an ice cream scooper at Amy’s. Luckily, Texas Tattoo Emporium is only 2 miles away from the ice cream shop so when my tattoo was finished, I walked to the ice cream shop. Morgan apparently told every living soul in the Shepherd area about my tattoo idea because before I even walked into the store, the assistant manager pulls up to me in the Amy’s van and goes, “What’s up? You’re not even working this shift.” I told him that I just got tattooed and he goes, “Oh yeah! I heard about that.” I never even told him my idea! He asked me if he could see it but I told him no because it was still wrapped up.
I go home and then come back a few hours later to work my shift. Before I walk into the store, I see the pit boss, Jaron, was sitting on the curb smoking a cigarette. The first thing he says to me is, “I want to see your tattoo.” What the fuck, I didn’t even tell him about the tattoo! By then it was wrapped in clear plastic so I lifted up my sleeve and showed it to him.
I walk into the ice cream shop and Angela, one of the scoopers, yells from behind the counter, “I want to see your tattoo!” I didn’t even tell her about it! I was really shy when I showed her because it was my first tattoo and Angela’s almost got both of her arms sleeved up and she’s got tattoos on her upper chest.
I washed my hands, put on an apron, washed my hands again, and started working. About an hour after I started working, this large and heavily tattooed man comes into the ice cream shop. He goes in the line and when he’s up to the counter he says, “Hey, I heard Antone tattooed you today!” I’ve never seen this guy in my life and even he knows about my tattoo.
I said to him, “Ohh…yeah…how did you know? Do you recognize my tattoo or something?”
Then the guy told me that he saw Antone a few hours earlier and Antone said that “some kid with an awesome moustache” came in earlier and got a tattoo. He showed me his tattoos and pointed out which ones Antone did. He said that Antone did the “LONE STAR” tattoos on his knuckles.
I got back to work and Angela went to go talk to the tattooed stranger and his girlfriend. A few minutes later I looked at my tattoo and saw that there was a lot of ink and blood and sweat clinging to the cellophane wrapped around my arm so like a 4 year old asking his mom to tie his shoes, I walked up to Angela and interrupted her conversation and said, “Angela, can you help me rewrap my tattoo?” She was more than happy to because she’s a mom so she’s naturally nice and she has a bunch of tattoos so she knows how to take care of them and she told me that she had been taking care of her dad’s tattoos ever since she was 7. She and Jaron and I walked back into the dishwashing place and used the pressurized hose to clean my tattoo off.
I’ve had the tattoo for 5 days now and my mom doesn’t know about it.
