I was very excited to get my first tattoo. It was my eighteenth birthday and my best friend had offered to pay for it as a gift. I had been looking forward to getting a tattoo for quite some time! To me it was a symbol of who I am and of my freedom. She even picked out a place for us to go and have it done. I was a little leery when she drove me out to a part of town I didn’t know very well and it didn’t look very nice. This was about 20 years ago…