“I kind of want to get a tattoo while we’re here,” Matt told me on Thanksgiving Day as we wandered the streets of Amsterdam.
I wasn’t shocked–Matt is constantly coming up with impulsive ideas and acting on them–but I was a bit skeptical that he’d actually follow through. Choosing a tattoo design can be a long, difficult process, and we only had two days left in the city.
So I told him that if he got a tattoo in Amsterdam, so would I.
I’m not impulsive by a long shot. I plan my days down to the hour, and I fully think through even the smallest decisions.
And yet, I found myself the next day in a Dutch tattoo parlor under the needle.
Matt and I kept our tattoos secret from everyone until we returned so we could hear them squealing “you just casually got a tattoo? In Amsterdam??”
No, no, friends. Matt just got a tattoo in Amsterdam. I have been planning this for a year and a half.
I never thought I’d get a tattoo. I didn’t have anything against them, but there’s my whole indecision thing and the whole permanence thing, and it just didn’t seem to be in my cards. And then a year and a half ago, I woke up from a dream where I had four tattoos and loved them all.
Suddenly, I desperately wanted a tattoo. I researched the process, decided on a design, and imposed a yearlong waiting period for myself to make sure it was the right decision. A year came and went, and I still wanted it, but I was a camp counselor, and I had to swim every day at work. New tattoos and water do not mix.
So I never got it.
That is, until Matt provided an opportunity to get it right there and then.
Ultimately I decided I’d rather regret getting a tattoo in Amsterdam than not getting a tattoo in Amsterdam. At least if I didn’t like it, I’d have a good story to tell, right?
(And for the record, I don’t regret it. And the story’s still good.)
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I like that you have yourself a year to make sure it was really what you wanted. When I got mine, I thought about it for months and months. I found a shop and went several times to observe before I finally got it.
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I had planned to carefully choose my artist, but the design was so simple that it would’ve been more about cleanliness of the facility than artistic vision. The place we went looked like a doctor’s office, it was so bright and sterile.
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Great way to have a memory from Amsterdam forever!
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True, I can never forget Amsterdam now!
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And now you have a cool story about how you got a tattoo in Amsterdam.
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Exactly!
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You don’t regret q tattoo!! You are one of the very few who have said that. Is that a triangular tattoo?
Considering you travel so much, if you ever end up in Auckland, you need to let me know about it.
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Yes, it’s a triangle. Someday down the line I may regret it, but I still love it for now. I’ll definitely let you know!
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