Jun 20, 2019
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altruism
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. SO, I JUST GOT DONE READING THE NEWEST CHAPTER OF 13 ROSES. THE PREVIEW THOUGH
THE ACTUAL FUCK. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. SPOILER ALERT: OH MY GOD.
boy gives girl 13 roses, saying "I will love you until the last rose dies."
the last rose was a synthetic rose, destined to last eternity.
girl throws plastic rose into the fire place screaming "boy you crusty" then throws boy into fire as well because he was a nuisance I mean let's be serious.
Love Inks: Valentine's Day at a Tattoo Parlor
ATLANTA- How about spending Valentine’s Day being pricked by needles? For some this sounds pretty romantic.
Sure you could go the traditional route, but candy melts and flowers die. In matters of love, some people opt for something more meaningful. A visual, more lasting expression of their love.
A tattoo.
And where does one go on Valentine’s Day for an inked gesture of their love and commitment?
Why 13 Roses Tattoo Parlor, of course.
Despite its flowery name, 13 Roses doesn’t seem very romantic. The brightly lit, dark wood-paneled rooms filled with stainless steel desks and shelves, the sounds of Wu-Tang Clan and Jay-Z blaring in the air, and the tattooed guys with needles don’t exactly scream love nest.
The unexpectedly fragrant sweet smell in the air, seem a stark contrast to the masculine, brightly colored drawings of dragons, wild animals, and scantily-clad pin-up girls.
And then there’s that constant buzzing sound.
Zzzz,zzzz,zzzz,zzz,zzz,zzz,zzz,zzz,zzz,zzz
13 Roses, though, has been the scene of quite a few romantic gestures.
“Yeah, every Valentine’s Day,” Tim McGrath, a tattoo artist at 13 Roses laughs. “I’ve seen just about everything.”
Tim, a medium statured man dressed in a black shirt and pants with short slick backed brown hair and a bushy, handlebar moustache, has been tattooing for 10 years.
Lips, names, and hearts are the most common according to McGrath. The wrist is the most common place for a name tattoo.
Perhaps his most romantic case, Tim recounts, occurred about a year or two ago.
“It was a man and a woman. I think they were in their 70s, they came in together and each got one. She was the devil and he was an angel. I remember that she was the wilder one of the two. They ended up being repeat customers.” McGrath says.
Like his clients McGrath and his wife both have each other’s names tattooed on each other.
“It was for our second anniversary and I forgot,” he laughs while showing the name Jen on his arm.
Who knows, maybe this tattoo things works. McGrath and his wife have been married for eight years.
Or maybe not.
“I got my first wife’s name and then I got it covered up.” Joe Vegas, a cool Jack Osbourne look-alike and another tattoo artist at 13 Roses, says.
For his second marriage Vegas and his wife opted for matching tattoos without names.
“We’re both Tauruses, so we each got the Taurus sign,” Vegas says.
For every inked, elderly love story there are more that don’t quite work out so well.
A 2003 Harris Poll revealed that 17% of the survey respondents regretted their choice of a tattoo. Sixteen percent of those who regret it say it was because of a person’s name being the tattoo or within the tattoo. A Houston tattoo removal center even hosted a free name tattoo removal event last Valentine’s Day.
“A lady got her fiance’s name, then came back the next day to get it covered up. I told her she had to wait for it to heal. I think that was the fastest turnaround I ever had,” McGrath says. “They were getting married and I was tattooing the guy and he was in the chair talking about other girls. I was like good luck with that.”
13 Roses doesn’t do tattoo removal so a cover-up, marking on top of the offending tattoo with a tattoo of something else, usually resolves the problem. McGrath says about 10 percent of his work are for clients requesting cover-up tattoos. Roses tend to be the most common cover-up.
The tattoo as a romantic gesture, though most often reserved for couples in long term relationships, McGrath says it’s not at all uncommon for an admirer to do it to impress the object of his affection.
“It tends to be people who’ve been together for a while, but occasionally some people do it for people they’re not dating.” Tim said. “They’ll tell me make it small so I can cover it up.”
A group of young ladies come in inquiring about tattoos and piercings.
Jay, a young, black woman in a hot pink hooded sweatshirt and long braids in a ponytail asks Ginger, 13 Roses desk clerk, about prices for a name tattoo.
Ginger, shifts her petite frame and tosses her black bobbed hair with one thick blond streak in the front while her and Joe Vegas discuss price and tattoo specifics. Jay and her crew wait.
It turns out Jay wants to get a tattoo of her boyfriend D’Angelo’s name on her wrist. It will be her second tattoo, the first is her late uncle’s name. Jay says it’s a Valentine’s Day gift and she’s not sure how D’Angelo will react. According to Jay, her and D’Angelo have been dating for 2 years.
The $60 minimum price tag is more than the ladies want to spend, so they decide to leave.
Vegas says he typically discourages teenagers requesting a name tattoo in their shop.
“I don’t know anyone who is still with the same person they dated as a teenager,” Vegas says running the needle across a customer’s chest, “If they want it on their hand I won’t do it. You can’t cover that up”
What about the name tattoo curse? The belief that once you tattoo a person’s name on you, the relationship is doomed to fail.
“I’ve seen it be bad.” Vegas says, “People will be together for years. They get the tattoo and they break up.”
“That’s why I won’t do it,” Vegas’ client says in the chair while being tattooed. “I’ve been with my girlfriend for five years. I love her, but I don’t need a tattoo to prove how I feel.”
Indeed.