Not long ago I was at my son Chance’s school preparing to go on one of his field trips.  There were many parents present at this time and as usual I was one of a few Dad’s that was there.  The third graders were all excited for the trip.  While standing behind one of the parents of one of the kids, I noticed that she had several tattoos on her body including several around her neck.

During the chaos of the group I took advantage of the distractions and was able to read some of the words on her neck and to my shock and amazement, she had the profanity four letter word “F ** K” on the back side of her neck in plain sight.  I let out a spontaneous, audible gasp, “Ohhhh!” and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  I then quickly tried to wipe the dumbfounded look of surprise off of my face before anyone noticed.  I then took another closer look to make sure that I wasn’t wrong, and yep, unfortunately I was right. 

After seeing this, my first thought was, I wonder what state of mind she was in when she had this particular tattoo done.  My second thought was, I wonder if she regrets the choice she made to have it done and my third thought was, what kind of job does she have that allows her to display her tattoos?

I’m always interested in talking to people and finding out their story but on this occasion I couldn’t seem to get her to chat much.  So needless to say, I never got the answer to my questions but it did make me think.  It’s interesting to me how a benign decision made in a few wild and crazy moments of insanity can resign us to a lifetime of residual affect and consequences.

I must admit that although I don’t have any tattoos on my body, I actually generally like them and find them to be visibly attractive on the body when done tastefully.  I would never consign myself to a thought of developing an opinion about someone’s character strictly based on their choice in tattoos because I understand that the tattoo is permanent but the mind-frame and mindset the tattoo was conceived in may no longer be the same.

The unfortunate reality is that my sentiment is not shared by the overwhelming majority of the general public.  Yes my friends, most people may judge you by what they see on your body i.e. clothes, jewelry, make-up, hairstyles and definitely tattoos are no exception.  Hmmm…

My thoughts are in terms of choosing to adorn and mark one’s body for the world to see doesn’t really require any considerable effort or talent.  It seems to me that the choice to do so is simple and the process is relatively easy.  But to make a positive mark on the world or even just one’s community would be much more difficult, but so much more rewarding and beneficial for our fellowman and woman.

As a result of the aforementioned, my unsolicited advise would be not to make any radical, permanent decisions before the age of 25 because your mindset and mind-frame just might change when the real world comes-a-knocking.  Just a little food for thought for you today.  Let’s go make our mark and make it GREAT!

My Book:  www.MakeItGreatNOW.com

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My Website:   www.CedricCrawford.com