“Why put a bumper sticker on a Cadillac?” was Coach Mac’s reply when asked if he has ever considered a tattoo.  

Mr. Tamburro, who also has no tattoos, thinks that people “should think carefully about putting anything on their bodies,” and claims that his dad threatened to “cut the tattoo out of him” if he dared to get one as a teenager.

But unlike Mac and Tambo, who have their reasons for not having any, many people around VHS, both faculty and students, do have them and wear them proudly.

Mr.Bresnan’s sleeve of tattoos is in memory of his father who passed away when he was a young boy. His father was an artist, so Mr. Bresnan got his father’s old paintings tattooed on his arms, along with his father’s signature. He also has a tattoo of a sketch his father drew of Mr.Bresnan as a young boy while they were out to dinner. On his other arm, Mr.Bresnan also has tattoos of salt and pepper shakers for his mother.

Contrasted to Mr.Bresnan’s tattoos for his parents, Mrs. Salisbury has tattoos of her children’s birthdays in roman numerals tattooed on her wrist. She calls this her “post-kids” tattoo.

Even though many tattoos have meaning behind them, not every tattoo has to be sentimental.

Ms. DellaFortuna has 8 tattoos to date, and got her first one of a heart with a halo and angel wings the day she turned 18 years old. Mrs. Salisbury also got her first tattoo of a butterfly on her ankle when she was “pre-kids” at 20 years old. Ms.D admits to getting her first tattoo redone a while after she got it, but still believes that 18 is an acceptable age to be able to get a tattoo without parent permission.

Even if someone isn’t 18 years old, that doesn’t mean that they can’t be tattooed! There are several students in the senior class that have tattoos, filled with different meaning and creativity.

Jenna Staranka got a matching tattoo of a star on her ankle with her sister a few months ago. To describe the meaning behind her tattoo, Jenna said “because our last name is Staranka, and there are 5 points in a star that represents the 5 people in my family”.

Another matching tattoo was Ashley Nigro and her mom, who got infinity signs with a moon, and the word “love” incorporated into it. Ashley grew up with her mother saying “I love you to the moon and back”, and it was so meaningful that they decided to get it tattooed together.

Alexa Vivona got the word “strength” tattooed on her wrist, a year after her great-grandmother passed away. “It was a really hard year and I needed something to keep me going, because she was really important to me”.

Similar to Alexa’s story, I got a tattoo in memory of somebody that passed away in my life. Over the summer, I got a matching tattoo with my father. We copied my grandfather’s signature off of a card he wrote before he passed away, and got the same tattoo.  My grandfather was such an important part of my life as a kid, and I wanted to have a piece of him always with me.

Tattoos are constantly subjected to debate, and everyone has a different opinion on what is acceptable or not. However, it is noticeable that our society is becoming more welcoming and accepting of this form of self expression and art, whether they have sentimental meaning or not, and our small high school seems to be a reflection of that.