I am interested to know your opinions of these types of self-expression-- also, if you have any.... what do you have?? What's your story??

Here's mine:

When I was about 7 or 8, I was on vacation with my parents, and I saw a girl who had a really pretty tattoo going around her wrist. I thought to myself how much I would like that someday... and I never forgot about it.

From the ages of 15 to about 20, I was really into the goth scene... Dressing all in black, black hair with crazy colored streaks, white face, black makeup, all of that crap....

I couldn't wait until I was 18 to run out and get tattoos and piercings. My parents were always very cool about self-expression, but said I had to wait until I was 18 to do that stuff... So right after my 18th birthday, I went out and got.... the tattoo around my wrist! It's a vine of flowers, blues, purples, and pinks, going around my wrist. I love it to this day. (I'm 26 now).

But I couldn't get enough, lol. So I got my navel pierced. Then I got the inner cartilage of my ear pierced. Ouch. Then I got about 8 different ear piercings. Then I did something incredibly stupid and got a tattoo on my upper arm, just below the shoulder. It was a black, 7 pointed star.

A couple years later, when my goth days were over, and I realized that you can't look like Elvira if you want a job, and a husband that doesn't look like the Grim Reaper, I wanted that tattoo OFF. Plus, I was getting married and wearing a strapless dress. So thus is the story of my 10 tattoo removal treatments. Way more expensive and painful then the actual tattoo. However, since it was simple and black, it is pretty much gone. There is a faint scar of the tattoo, that can only be seen if you are really staring at the spot.

All the ear piercings are gone and have closed up except for the normal 1st and 2nd holes.

I have tiny gem in my nose. I got it very recently. Some things I will never grow out of, lol.

Both my internship and my regular job are fine with it. I am a psychotherapy intern at an inpatient psych hospital, and my supervisor said that it might even help facilliate discussion with the patients about self-expression, lol.