The Mark of a Criminal

Not a Hologram

My mother is very old fashioned. Here are a few conversations I've had with her:

Her: "Did you see your sisters teacher was wearing a thong!"
Me: "Yeah, I guess she doesn't want to show any panty lines in her tights."

Her: "How long has your friend been dating that girl? Shouldn't they get married by now?"
Me: "Did you stop and think that maybe she's the one that doesn't want to get married?"

Her: "Your brother is starting to have girlfriends, I think its time to teach him about sex."
Me: "He's 15 mom, I think your kind of late on that."
Her: "What do you mean?"
Me: "Mom, he grew up with the internet. Kids don't hide porno's under their bed anymore, they just go online and type "big boobs."

Her: "Can you stay up late tonight, eat the cookies and milk and write a letter from Santa? Its for your sister."
Me: "She still believes in Santa? She's almost 11!"
Her: "You believed in Santa until you were thirteen!"
Me: "I stopped believing when I was eight when I saw Santa's presents were wrapped in the same paper as your gifts. I just didn't tell you because I wanted more presents."
Her: "..." (Glaring at me)

So when I moved into my friends apartment last year to be closer to school, I warned her about my friend. This is because my friend has tattoos. A lot of them, all over his body. My mother associates tattoos with criminality as do most people. Though my mom is a little out of touch with modern times this is a common stereotype that people have about people with tattoos. Yet tattoos are becoming more common and have a much deeper history than western tradition.

New Guinea girls tattooing

Many Indigenous tribes around the world used tattoos as a way of decoration, ritual and many other things. In fact, one of the most preserved ancient humans named "Otzi the iceman" was found to have 57 separate tattoos!