Family

Family

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

inking the precedent

There was an importunate sense in her voice as she tugged on my shirt and looked up at me. “Mommy,” she whined, “I want a rattoo.”

The statement should have surprised me. It would surprise most parents of a four-year-old girl. But for me, I knew it was just a matter of time before Ash started asking for a tattoo, oh, and piercings, too. B and I knew this day was coming, just not this soon. But as those words escaped her mouth, I wondered how many times over the next 14 or so years that I would hear that sentence. Then I stopped to count how many times I heard it from B over the last 14 or so years.

I looked down at the pleading eyes of my darling little girl, I cupped her cheek gently in my hand and was just about to dispel any illusions that she may be the next in line to get a tattoo – a spot clearly reserved for me – when I saw the Sticker and Temporary Tattoo book she got for Christmas gripped in her hand.

“Absolutely you can have a rattoo. Which one do you want?”

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