Thought Paper #9

Walking along the Haight one day, I saw a sign sitting out in the middle of the street. On it said, "Rose Gold's Tattoo, 15% student discount."  Since coming to San Francisco, I have been wanting to make my dream of getting a tattoo a reality.

Rose Gold's seemed perfect.  It was clean, the parlor looked bright and nice, and on top of that, it advertised a fifteen percent student discount.  Although this place seemed great, I decided to do a little research on different tattoo parlors first.  I googled San Francsico tattoo parlors and found many on Yelp!.  Yelp! was incredibly useful, as it gave me personal reviews of people who had been to and gotten tattoos from these specific tattoo parlors.  I believe that the internet is an incredibly important form of signage and advertisement because it is so accessible.

I found myself doing more and more research on Rose Gold's, however, and decided that it would be the place for me.  I went in one day a few weeks ago and gave them a drawing of my idea for my tattoo.  I asked about the student discount and they said that it was just for the jewelery they sold.  However, I found it interesting that the fifteen percent discount is what drew me in to that parlor.  It is a very smart form of advertising, I would think.  I'm sure many students go into that parlor hoping for a discount and finding that there is none for tattoos.  After they go in, however, they could very well just stick with the tattoo parlor because they fall in love with it, like me.

When I went in, I showed them my original drawing, but I had changed a few things from it and decided to tell them personally what I would like done.  I talked with a tattoo artist named Jared and he was really cool.  He got back to me about a week later with two drawings, one depicting the bird I wanted, and the other depicting a bird that he believed was more artistic.  I decided to go with the bird I originally wanted and made a few suggestions for changes.  After he made those changes, the tattoo was absolutely perfect and I set up an appointment for Dec. 3 at 1:30 p.m.

Well, I just got my tattoo and let me say that it was pretty painful.  It's surprising how much more painful it was than I expected.  Basically, a tattoo is like getting needles dragged painfully across your skin.  However, it only lasted an hour (Jared did a great job!) and it turned out absolutely perfect.

I think tattoos are such an expressive form of signage.  They can tell you about a person, or even just stand to make one's body more beautiful.  I think it's such a beautiful concept that one can make a work of art a permanent part of their body, it is a sign that is a part of me forever. I love my tattoo and I am incredibly happy with it.