Revision - What do you really see ?

   

      Growing up as a child I have personally always admired tattoos, regardless of what my parents had thought about them. I felt as if tattoos were a literal form of the saying "I wear my emotions on my sleeve" good or bad. Ive never seen tattoos as a bad thing, but I knew they will be on you forever once you get it. My father has about seven tattoos and my mom has none and I personally have two and seek to get more in the future. As far as I remember, I have never looked down on people with tattoos. Lonnie John Oster lives in Pico Rivera and is the owner of his own tattoo shop. He decided to speak on one of the tattoos that meant the most to him. I felt that the tattoo had to of been symbolic to someone in his life someone that has greatly made an impact, I mean it was a face of someone. The portrait of his grandmother was the most meaningful to him because growing up as a child she raised him and spoiled him like any grandmother would, his mother was always there but his grand mother was one of the most important woman figures in his life. The portrait is on his right side of his calf. It is a portrait of a women of course, its his grandmother. I wondered if his calf was a significant placement to him but it actually wasn't. He said, "That's only because I ran out of other places significant to put it."  The portrait seems to be as if she was in the 50's she is wearing a necklace and pearl earrings. Her face is rather serious but what portraits from back then aren't like that ? As I was looking at this one particular tattoo I couldn't help but notice all of the other tattoos on his body which made me wonder why he wanted all these in the first place.  

    

He described himself when he was young as a straight A student until the 8th grade when he became a drug addict and an alcoholic and eventually dropped out of school. He received his first tattoo at the age of 21, But what made him go from one to about nineteen tattoos?  Although it was evident he had a full body of tattoos I was curious to know how many he really had.

 

    "I only have one, it starts at my fingers and ends at my feet".

 

 I had asked him why did you want so many tattoos ? didn't you feel like you were hindering peoples first impressions about you ?

    

"I got tattoos because I went through a lot in my life and plus I wanted them. Everything I have is different and they all tell different stories good and bad. The reason they're marked on me because everything I went through I was able to come out of. Its my story, it is what is impressed in me and shown on my skin. No I wasn't scared of what peoples first impressions were of me because what I look like doesn't define who I am. I am someone that has a story, I am not the person they might assume."

     

Peoples first thoughts of seeing Lonnie are always different than what he feels about himself.

 

"People think I am a violent, out of control, mean scary intimidating person but that's just the persona I have built for myself at an early age."

 

 He describes himself as loving, caring, protective, and kind. Not this big crazy tattooed person everyone sees. I have always thought of getting tattoos on my arms until I though about the attention and crappy looks it comes with, especially cause I am a girl. Imagine having a whole body full? I wanted to know did he constantly feel like he was being starred at and judged because of how many tattoos were on his body? 

   

"Yes I constantly feels judged a feels as if though its like 25/75, twenty five percent of people have tattoos just like me and understand the rest of the 75  look at me like I am dirt, stare at me like I am crazy or cant even really believe some of my tattoos."

     

 He believes tattoos give this perception of big bad people but in realty its just a way of showing who you are and a way of telling your story. When I fist met Lonnie it was in my church. I have to admit he was so intimidating and looked as if he would throw anyone across the room that got in his way. I watched this large six foot bald headed man with a pointy biker beard walk into this church. I stared at him just like everyone else did with a little bit of fright in them. Like what ? Not the normal person you would see in a church. I remember being at church during worship and staring at the closely detailed names and images on his forearms and knuckles as he lifted his hands. Images like baby building blocks with letters on them spelling out names in baby colors. Names that looked liked if they were names of his children. His face was mean like he was going to yell at everyone, but my perception of him soon disappeared right after I met him. Lonnie had a heart for god and was kind to the bone but wouldn't hesitate to throw anyone if he needed to. I soon found out that he has four kids. Three boys and a girl. Which would explain the baby building blocks on his forearms. I later found out that he was also the owner of a tattoo shop in Pico Rivera that he has now owned for 17 years and has a group of five artist working for him. As he grew up a drug addict and alcoholic he decided he needed to find a way to make his own money and didn't want to have to work for anyone.

 

"Growing up I did really bad things to support myself. Coming to the age of 25 I decided I needed to find a way to earn my own money where I didn't have to work for anyone so I had got a large settlement from an insurance deal I went through at work and used the money to purchased a tattoo shop..and now I am no longer that bad person." 

 

It kind of seemed like the stereotypical that he has a full body of tattoos and owns a tattoo shop right ? He has a passion for it. Purchasing that tattoo shop and all of his tattoos are part of his story. He decided he needed to grow up and make a living. What better way than to do what you love ? He has been running this tattoo shop for years now and I believe it is for people just like him to come and express their stories. It makes me wonder about everyone else's story that owns a tattoo shop. To many, tattoos are on the list of worst things you could do to yourself but I wonder if anyone of those people that undermine them so much have ever actually heard the real story behind all that skin and ink? 

 

"Stop judging. Don't worry about it. It is all personal preference if you like tattoos get them if people around you cant deal with them then they really cant deal with you."

 

His religion never affected him wanting tattoos. In fact he wasn't always Christian. Before he met Christ his body was already inked. The tattoos that were on his skin shared a story of past life struggles before he found god. Once he was saved some of the tattoos he now has are of Angels, Christ on the cross and Noah.  His heart belongs to God.

   

"God does not care about your outer appearance he cares about what is inside we are living in a flesh body something made for this word. My heart belongs in him and when I die my body will remain here with all of the stories I lived on it. Once I reach heaven ill become new. Ill have no more tattoos but reaching heaven will be the biggest part of my story ."

 

Everyone in this world is filled with opinions. Societies assumptions are different than mine, different than yours and different than those who are and are not tattooed. We can all say do not judge a book by its cover In reality we all do whether we want to admit it or not, But don't let that judgment smother you because what you see is never what always meets the eye. Tattoos are frowned upon with many people but why ? is it just the older generation ? because they were never as exposed to it as much as this generation is. Why are we so jumped at for getting tattoos and why are people so curious what they mean ? Just like us a tattoo can mean more than what meets the eye so why judge someone on a few tattoos ? Media and society or what we hear at a young age begins to tell us how to feel about it and tell us what we should think about certain things. It becomes engraved in us and we are taken away our true thoughts or perception on many things because we begin to rely on  how society sees it. Be your own person open your eyes and see how you see it for once not how someone is telling you to see it, Maybe now you'll see all the things you've never really seen.