Tattoos of Flowers

Tattoos of Flowers
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Ahhh, summertime. Hot days, cool nights, shorts, tank tops, bikinis... whoa, wait.

Did I miss it when virtually every person you see at the beach or at the water park is covered in tattoos? I knew it was a "thing," and yes, I even have a little tattoo on my ankle from back in my college days, but holy smokes, talk about a growth industry.

I was just on vacation down on the beautiful Gulf Coast of Alabama, and the amount of tattoos on the young, as well the old, was staggering. I'm not going to judge, different strokes for different folks and whatever floats your boat is fine with me... however, I noticed a really prevalent theme.

The single most reproduced images I saw in body art were all flowers. After I had this epiphany, I started noticing them more and more. Lilies, iris, fragipanni, orchids and roses all drawn across various body parts.

Then it struck me, a tattoo is about as permanent a personal experience you can have. This tattoo will be around longer than your mortgage, maybe around longer than your spouse, and frankly you will still have it in your coffin. On the other hand, flowers are one of the most temporal, experiential items in all of nature. They are here, then gone. When you bring them home, they put on a wonderful show for all your senses, then a couple weeks, maybe 10 days later they are gone.

How interesting that people tattoo impermanent flowers permanently on their skin. Really, this speaks to the allure and the power of flowers. People love flowers so much; they must have them tattooed right on their skin.

Next time you are getting the itch for a new Stargazer Lily tattoo, just go buy some fresh flowers!

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