Tattoos are an art form meant to express an aspect of someone’s life or important event that changed someone. Perhaps that makes students who get inked more experienced in the ups and downs of the world. 

“Tattoos have meaning to the person who gets them, whether that be a troubled time in life or something good that happened to them,” said David Ekimyan.

Ekimyan is a 16-year-old senior at Hoover.

Ekimyan always joked to his mom about getting a tattoo and “one day me and my mom both got one together, my mom got a tiny little cross on her arm and I got this,” said Ekimyan. Ekimyan’s first tattoo was a broken cross with the word faith.

“When my grandpa died I felt like I had faith, but after a while I felt my faith, thinking about my grandpa,” Ekimyan said.

Recently Ekimyan has gotten a new tattoo. “It’s in memory of my mom, she passed away two months ago,” said Ekimyan.

A tragic fact that should never happen to anyone, but nonetheless gives purpose to tattoos. Everyone experiences something in their lives that changes them, makes them see the world differently whether it be the loss of a parent or sibling or a recognition of someone’s passions.

“I’ve always been interested in tattoos and I thought the best first tattoo to get was my last name, because it has meaning to it and it’s something I’m proud of,” said Allan Garcia.

Garcia is a senior at Hoover high. He is a popular guy at Hoover and has a ton of friends, so when he asked one of his friends to tattoo him, his friends were glad to.

There is a twist to this story though, “I actually got it behind my parents back and the day after I got it I showed them and they got really upset with me, but obviously overtime they’ve gotten over it,” Garcia said.

His tattoo artist friend did ask if Garcia had gotten consent from his parents and Garcia’s friend still went along with it. He did promise his mom to wait until he’s 18-years-old before getting anymore, seeing as he didn’t tell them in the first place.

Sometimes people regret getting a tattoo for reasons that could include it being an impulsive decision, hating the meaning it has, perhaps not thinking about the future ramifications of the tattoo.

“Not really, I thought about it for 6 months before I got it to make sure it’s exactly what I wanted and to make sure it wasn’t a choice I would regret,” said Garcia, “To be honest I don’t think I’ll ever regret it.”  .