My son, like pretty much every kid his age, loves temporary tattoos. I think he'd be covered in them head to toe every day of the week if I didn't draw the line.
He recently came home to me after a weekend away with a fresh one on the middle of his back. According to my mom, who was the one who obligingly applied said tattoo, he wanted it there because that's where Uncle J.J. has a tattoo.
So this is where this is going -- the real thing vs. the fake one.
I have a small tattoo (about the size of two quarters) in a discreet location on my body. My son saw it the other day, not for the first time, and asked why I always had that "picture" in the same place.
How to explain the a real tattoo's permanence? Turns out, straightforward is the best approach.
"My tattoo doesn't go away. It's there forever," I told him.
He very nearly visibly cringed.
"I never want to do that," he said.
If you felt a sudden rush of breeze blow by you yesterday morning, it was probably my enormous sigh of relief wafting across three states.
I know, I know -- that stands very likely to change in the years to come, but I don't know if I could stand the idea of a real tattoo being appealing already to my 5 year old. I'll take the cringe any day.
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