That's gonna leave a mark

It doesn't hurt here or here so much, but right here...

As parents, we all try to make decisions which set a positive path for our child's future.  Not everyone has the same idea of how to achieve this goal.  Whatever parenting methods we use or decisions we make, we are all trying to lay the groundwork to build a solid character for our youngsters.  Thus, we often find ourselves in scenarios where we wonder, "Will this leave a lasting impression on my child?"

We want to teach our children right and wrong, good behavior vs bad behavior, etc, but not everything is as clear cut as we'd like it to be.  On the one hand, we want our children to learn the best way to handle certain situations.  On the other hand, we don't want our children growing up with tunnel vision and thinking there is only one "right way" to do everything.  And we really don't want our children judging other people because of differences in the way they live their lives.  We would like to think that we can provide our children with different experiences to give them a diverse and open outlook on life.

Case in point, I'm writing this post to help justify our decision to take Emry to a tattoo studio recently.  Seriously? Who takes a toddler with them to get a tattoo?  Well, we thought we'd try. 

Ever since we've been married, I've told Maren I wanted to have my wedding band tattooed on my ring finger.  Maren had been watching a lot of NY Ink lately, so I thought it would be a good time to bring up the topic again.  Surprisingly, Maren was cool with the idea "as long as it didn't look trashy!" 

After receiving her overwhelming nod of support, I consulted with a local tattoo artist to get my design idea put on paper.  On an innocent Saturday afternoon the artist called back to say she had the design ready. Maren wanted to make sure it wasn't "trashy" before I set up an appointment to get tatted, so the whole family hopped into the car and headed to the tattoo shop.

Maren and I checked out the design and it looked great.  The artist had time available to do the tat right there on the spot, so I decided to go for it!  We just had to wait for her to shrink it to the right size and make the carbon stencil...however, that took forever! (In this story, forever was 50 minutes long.)

Just eating some apple slices while we wait!

18 month olds don't like waiting or sitting still...so we had to find ways to pass the time.  There were crayons and paper in the waiting area, so Emry colored for about 5 minutes -- the crayons were a reassuring sign that we weren't only parents who take their little children with them to get tatted.  We also had fun looking at all the colorful art and tattoo designs on the walls -- Emry picked out a colorful butterfly to get on her ankle(only 16 1/2 more years!)  We poked our heads into a couple of rooms to watch other people getting tatted.  We also looked at the rubber models of various body parts that showed different piercings you can get.  Fun fact:  If you decide to get your "you know what" pierced, there are 3 piercings available for guys, while there are 5 options "down there" for the ladies.

Who's next?

Finally it was time to get tatted!  The whole thing only lasted about 10 minutes, and that included stopping a couple times to take pictures with Emry.  Emry seemed to enjoy herself.  She had fun checking out all the different sights at the shop, but I guess we'll never know if Emry's first trip to the tattoo shop had any effect on her development as a human being.  One thing's for sure, the experience left a permanent mark on at least one of the Smith's...