Last friday, my roommate and I went to visit some friends at their dorm. In our visit, the topic of tattoos was brought up. I expressed that I would want my first tattoo to be spontaneous and done without much consideration. A tattoo that I know I may regret in the future but it would be a reminder that I was once young and able to act on a whim. Amidst our conversation, my friend rummaged in her closet and pulled out a set of needles, ink, and a pocket sized bottle of Purell. Looking at the set, my roommate thought of the perfect idea to get matching stick and poke tattoos. After 10 minutes of brainstorming, my friend spread out a thin blanket on her floor and scotch-taped a thick needle onto a ball point pen. The first poke felt in the middle of a pinch and a scratch, and the next 20 felt like deeper pricks, and the next 50 didn’t feel like anything at all. Wiping away the smudged ink with Purell, revealed a dotted symmetrical but imperfect heart. Me and my roommate’s “matching” tattoo were the same in concept and design but they were not close to being identical. We smeared our flank in Vaseline before wrapping it with saran wrap and tape. That night, my roommate and I went home with matching hearts, and two other friends left with a small sun and a symbol of Saturn.
