Tattoo You

As many of you know (and maybe some of you don't), I have a tattoo on my back right shoulder that is the state of Texas with the Longhorn emblem on it. The kids have always noticed it but never really asked about it. Then this past weekend while we were driving around in the car, it finally happened. I have no idea what made Ethan think about it, but the sequence of questions came at rapid fire. "Dad, why do you have your tattoo?" (because I am proud to be from Texas and I am fanatical Longhorn fan). "Dad, where did you get the tattoo?" (when I was in Austin). "Dad, when did you get the tattoo?" (when your mom and I were on one of our first dates). As I meticulously answered each of the questions with the somewhat rehearsed answer (I knew it would come up sometime in their lives) I was hit with the comment that I was not quite prepared for from my five year old. "Dad, I think I would want to get a tattoo someday." This followed up by both Caleb and Abigail throwing in their vote to get tattoos as well. As I worked to dissuade them, they used the "but you have one, dad" card on me in which of course I had to rebuttal with "that does not necessarily make it right for you." The discussion led us to the difference between temporary and permanent tattoos and why did mine not ever wash off when their Thomas the Train and Princess tattoos wash off in the bath. Of course I was able to get in the great dad advise that no matter how old they are, that they should ask their mom and dad before they make any kind of major decision about something like this. Fortunately for me, Radio Disney was on and Hannah Montana came in over the airwaves to save me as the kids attention was diverted to singing "You Get The Best of Both Worlds". Thank you Hannah, maybe they won't remember to bring the discussion up again until after college.