For my friends

On Sunday we took a drive up to Vermont to visit my son. He is working at the college this summer. It was great to see him and also to get up to the hills of VT.

Youngest son (age 23) had gotten a tattoo and although we had seen a picture of it from a short cell phone video, we were curious to see it in person. On the video it looked huge, but I thought it could have looked so big because she put the camera up close to it. When I saw how huge it was, my heart sank. He is certainly old enough to do what he wants to with his body, but as parents sometimes it is hard to remain non-reactive, when the gut is reacting! I told him it looked fine, but was curious to see it. (Fortunately when we saw it in real life, it was the perfect size. ) Whew.

What he had tattooed on his wrist was a song title; For My Friends. That was it. Plain and simple. He picked it for two reasons. First to to replace a rubber wrist band that he has been wearing in memory of his friend Nick who died of congenital heart disease a few years ago. He decided that he wanted something permanent to honor him.

He picked that particular song title because a close friend of his was in a band for 10 years and the band just broke up. His friend wrote the song for the all the fans that supported them over the years. My son was very close to all the band members and helped to promote them when they were starting out. He had a wonderful time during the whole experience. He made lots of new friends at the concerts and they all bonded and became very tight. He was sad as anything when the band had their farewell concert weekend, yet he could appreciate that the band members wanted to move on with their lives as some were getting married and wanting to settle down.

I was in awe that he put so much thought into his tattoo and knowing how much his friends mean to him, I understand how important it is to him. He was concerned that me and his dad wouldn't like it, so he was thrilled that we were supportive.

I have to say, I don't have any objections to body art within limits, but even if I did, how could I have not been thrilled with a son who isn't afraid to show his heart on his wrist?