Body tattoos have been an essential part of human expression for thousands of years. It is only recently, in the last few hundred years, that they began to develop an “unprofessional” reputation. Despite this, various students and teachers around Arcata High have important tattoos that represent a variety of meaningful things.
Samuel Hood is a senior who recently got his first tattoo at Primal Decor, one of the most popular tattoo parlors in Humboldt. His grandma paid for it as an eighteenth birthday present.
He chose a cicada, a symbol of change.
“I grew up in New Mexico, and I chose it because [the cicada] is a symbol of change, but not in the same way that a butterfly is. The cicada doesn’t just come back one time and become beautiful, it comes back many times, and it takes a really long time,” Hood said. “When it sheds its exoskeleton, it’s super vulnerable. So, if you want to change, you have to be vulnerable.”
For many, the designs carry personal meaning.
“One of my kids has a memorial tattoo to somebody that passed away,” science teacher Shannon Kresge said.
Kresge is the most tatted-up in the science department (possibly, at AHS), with no runners-up. (Or, at least, none who have been willing to show themselves.)
Apart from her iconic full-color sleeve tattoo, she also has an upper arm tattoo, two wrist tattoos, two feet tattoos, and one ankle tattoo.
“For me, it all had to have a place and a meaning,” Kresge said. “I got my wrist tattoos with my sister, and it’s something that unifies us, the female power symbol and the Celtic sisterhood knot.”
Tattoos are a unique and individual art form meant for the sole purpose of self-expression; they are also a very permanent choice, almost always a lifelong commitment. Kresge advised you to be thoughtful about what you choose to put on your body.
“The first one, the one that I got at seventeen… I don’t hate it, but I could do without it,” Kresge said, in reference to the Grateful Dead bear that she got on her ankle at a music festival. “You have to be able to tolerate the pain, but you also have to have something you’d want to look at for the rest of your life.”
