The Boring But Still Kinda Lit Story Behind My First Tattoo

I couldn’t regret you if I tried.

I spent the first paycheck from my first job, at a bagel shop, to get my first tattoo: a semicolon on my wrist. Since learning about the mental health organization Project Semicolon, I wanted it tattooed.

I saw the symbol as a double entendre. One interpretation focuses on my love of writing. Another reveals the mental health struggles I’ve had since childhood.

One weekend afternoon, I woke up and decided that day was the day. My roommate and I trekked across the city to a tattoo shop, one popular in our college town. We were in and out in 30 minutes.

Four years later, I still smile when I look at it.

I’m considering getting another tattoo for my 26th birthday next month. Fingers crossed that I’ll have another boring, yet kinda lit story to tell real soon.

This is a response to Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她)’s shortform theme of the week. Interested in writing your own? Wonderful! Check out her post for more info:

Nia Simone McLeod is a writer who’s thinking about cutting her hair — if only to embody the Kanye West lyric, “She had hair so long that it look like weave. Then she cut it all off now she look like Eve.” She created a couple of dope medium publications: oh, write and coiled. And oh yeah — she’s got a newsletter too; because doesn’t every writer have a newsletter these days?