“It’s kind of like a tribute,” senior Carly Angelo said, drawing attention to her left wrist. There, a tiny tattoo—no bigger than an inch—sits in support of her mother and stepdad and in memory of her uncle. All three of them battled cancer, leading Angelo to decide on a black cancer awareness symbol as her tattoo of choice.

Angelo had known she wanted a tattoo since last year, but was unsure of where to place it. One factor she had to consider was her future profession in the medical field, where tattoos must be covered.  Stuck between selecting her heel and her wrist, her mother’s advice helped her decide on the latter.

Accompanied by her sister, Angelo anxiously arrived at the tattoo parlor. After making the tattoo artist redo the free-hand drawing of her tattoo four times, Angelo was ready for the needle.

“It was scary to look at the actual needle because it makes a really loud noise and the needle goes up and down really quickly,” Angelo said. “ But I stared at it the whole time; I was afraid I was going to move my wrist if I looked somewhere else!”

A few minutes later, the tattoo was finished. She was able to go back home and proudly show it to her family. Angelo still remembers one of the reactions with a smile.

 “When I told my grandma, she though it was a Jesus fish-thing,” Angelo said.

Angelo has experienced different reactions to her tattoo.

 “I feel like all my friends love it—my age group—but the older people think of it as rebellion, when it’s really not,” Angelo laughed.

Even though Angelo has only had the tattoo for a month, she realizes the permanency of the body art. She’s noticed a trend in people getting tattoos, but emphasizes the need for a background story that would resonate through time.

“If you’re going to put something permanent on your body you should know what you want; you shouldn’t want a tattoo for the idea of a tattoo,” Angelo said. “You need something that has a lot of meaning to you, so much so that you want it to be a part of you.”