L
ate last Saturday morn-
ing, I went to a garage
sale with my best friend/
sister-in-
law, Caitlin.
(We
were
best friends
before
she
fell in love
with,
mar-
ried and had
a baby with
my
year-
younger
brother).
They
were
renovating and trying to move
into our childhood home.
Caitlin was interested in a
black, older but good condition
table/shelf combo. After seeing
it first, then walking around
the small, unappealing garage
sale, we returned to the furni-
ture set, and she bought it for
$10. A plastic, 1986 Bud Light
mug with a bull terrier mascot
was added to the purchase for
my brother because it was kind
of comical.
The older man hosting the
garage sale was insistent on
helping load the furniture into
the back of Caitlin’s seven-pas-
senger Yukon. He was taking
a break from strategizing on
how to fit both pieces when he
noticed my tattoos half covered
by my t-shirt sleeve.
Reaching his hand toward
the top of my arm, the man
acted as if he was going to
lift my shirtsleeve up. He
motioned for me to show him
the rest of my tattoos, without
a word about whether or not I
appreciated his curiosity.
A globe, four-inches in diam-
eter, covers most of the front,
top part of my arm. It’s slightly
old-fashioned
with
longitude
and latitude lines filling the
blank
oceans.
There’s
some
shading around the globe, with
the phrase “We need not wait
to see what others do.” stag-
gered in two lines beneath it, in
a straight-lettered, all-capital
type of font.
It’s a Gandhi quote. Look it up.
Where the word “DO” ends,
a separate, older tattoo begins,
running parallel to my bicep.
Two words, 12 letters, “keep
swimming” is etched in a type-
writer-like font from the middle
of my bicep to three inches away
from the top of my shoulder.
I’ve always received interest-
ing but cliché remarks about my
thoroughly simplistic tattoo. In
the two years that I’ve had it, the
comments I receive usually seem
to fall into one of four categories:
1) General, nice pleasantries:
“I like your tattoo.”
Thank you for being kind
and respectful.
2)
Something
involv-
ing swimming: “Are you on
the swim team?”
Do I really look like I’m on the
swim team?
3) Finding Nemo themed:
“Doesn’t
Dory
say
that
in
‘Finding Nemo’?”
Yes she does, but that doesn’t
necessarily mean I got a tattoo
inspired by the movie.
4) And the worst of all — an
exclusively personal remark: “So
what’s the real meaning behind
your tattoo?”
I
can
barely
tell
my
best
friends
the
meaning,
and I’m supposed to tell a
complete stranger?
Now, I’ve added another tat-
too that’s at least five-times
the size of my original inqui-
ry-maker. Since mid-May, the
number of times people have
asked me to lift my shirtsleeve
to show them the rest of my tat-
toos is innumerable.
A few weeks ago, I was on my
way home from the Matthaei
Botanical Gardens with three
friends when we started discuss-
ing tattoos. I made a comment
about how I really don’t like
attention being drawn to mine,
and one of my friends made an
interesting remark: “Isn’t that
what they are for?”
Nearly
having
a
quarter-
sleeve on your upper-right arm
isn’t really discrete. Whenever
it’s hotter than 60 degrees out,
the public catches a glimpse of
my permanent artwork. I can’t
be completely rude to random
strangers for their annoying
but innocent curiosity about my
obvious tattoos.
Sure, there’s no need to be
rude, but those interested in
others’ tattoos need to be more
mindful as well. I didn’t spend
hundreds of dollars that I earned
to have someone permanently
put ink into my skin for anybody,
but me.
After all, it’s me that wakes
up to the daily reminders on
my arm, visible in my sightline
whenever there’s no clothing
covering it. It’s me who has to
endure the endless comments
and jokes about things that are
deeply meaningful to my life.
It’s me who wears longer sleeves
to larger social functions just to
avoid seemingly critical eyes.
Listening to incessant com-
ments and enduring endless
staring makes me feel insecure
about my tattoos, like the words,
phrases and pictures I’ve decided
to indelibly mark on my body are
stupid, worthless or ignorant.
My body is mine, and mine
alone. I appreciate when people
admire the tattoos I hold dear
to my heart, and I honestly
don’t need validation for my
decisions. But sometimes, it’d
be nice if people just kept their
comments to themselves.
— Aarica Marsh can be reached
at aaricama@umich.edu.
5
Thursday, June 25 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com OPINION
Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and
viewpoints. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while
viewpoints should be 550-850 words. Send the writer’s full
name and University affiliation to melikaye@umich.edu
gram, that when I posted some-
thing, I wasn’t posting photos
because I was excited to share
something
in
my life, or for
my own enjoy-
ment.
Rather,
I was posting
photos for the
followers
that
I had. “Likes”
began to carry
too
much
weight for me
to
be
com-
fortable
with.
That’s when I
knew it was time for a change.
Going off of Instagram isn’t a
solution for everyone, of course,
but I do think it’s time that we
step back and take a moment to
think about why we are on Insta-
gram and Facebook. Who are we
on there for? I believe the only
way that Instagram and Face-
book can stay enjoyable, and not
become places of competition and
anxiety, is if we are posting for
ourselves, because we are excited
to share our graduation or the
birth of our child, and we aren’t
worried about
approval
from
oth-
ers
through
“likes.”
It’s
time we talk
ourselves
down
from
the
place
where “likes”
are
indica-
tive
of
the
people in our
lives who like
us. Since Instagram and Face-
book are not going away anytime
soon, it’s important we remember
that our value isn’t the number
of “likes” we have on our profile
pictures or the number of Insta-
gram followers we have. We are
all worth so much more than our
online profiles.
— Anna Polumbo-Levy can be
reached at annapl@umich.edu.
“Likes” began
to carry too much
weight for me to be
comfortable with.
My tattoos are for me
AARICA
MARSH
— University President Mark Schlissel in his response to the
survey results from the University’s Campus Climate Survey
on Sexual Misconduct.
“
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
We are adding a staff
to help us develop and
deliver the best pos-
sible prevention and
education programs, to
speed up sexual mis-
conduct investigations
and to help counsel
and support survivors.”
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