At the age of 19, Rose Nicholson got her first tattoo, an 8-inch heart design across her chest. Over the next eight years, she added a half sleeve of colorful characters from the 90s computer game Neverhood on her arm, along with lyrics to the song ‘Smile’ by Eyedea and Abilities. On the same arm, she had four pre-designed “flash” tattoos, which you choose on the day, and three Harry Potter tattoos. She continued adding tattoos all over her body until she was 27. Her final one was the Deftones White Pony logo on the back of her thigh, which she got when she was 27. However, by the time she was 30, she said she “hated” them all.
Rose, who lives in Manchester, says she considered getting them removed, but it’s too expensive. She said: “I still love Harry Potter, but I don’t want it on my skin. I don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea. I don’t like the way it looks on me anymore. They don’t look right with the clothes I want to wear. There was no attempt at design. There is no uniformity. The work isn’t bad, but it’s cartoon characters. By the time I was 30, I realized I hated my tattoos and wished I could take them all back.”
Rose, who works as an accountant, says that she nearly always wears long sleeves to work to prevent people from seeing her tattoos. “The first time everyone saw them at work was during a 40-degree heatwave, and people were surprised,” she said.
She says that she doesn’t wear low-cut shirts because of her heart tattoo. “It was my first tattoo,” she said. “I didn’t really want it that big, but the tattoo artist talked me into it by saying to go ‘all out’. It’s 8 inches wide and two to three inches tall, and it’s really hard to cover up.”
“I can’t wear most dresses,” she said, before adding that the same tattoo artist later apologized to her after she told him it was her least favorite tattoo.
Rose says that the tattoos she chose when she was younger give the wrong impression of her lifestyle. “People look at tattoos and assume I am a certain way; interested in going to metal shows, or going out and getting drunk with friends,” she said.
She said that she doesn’t want to talk about the tattoos she chose to get and that people often ask her about her unsolicited tattoos. “There was once a guy who came up to me and asked me if he could touch them,” she said. “That might have been part of what led to me wishing I had never gotten them. I didn’t want to talk about my tattoos all the time. I thought it was cool to have tattoos, and here I am now, and I just hate them all and wish I could take them all back.”
Rose said she considered having them removed but added: “I know it’s possible, but the process is long-winded, expensive, and painful. I don’t really have the disposable income as an adult as I did when I was younger. I was living at home, and my cash from my job went to buying tattoos. When you’re young, you don’t care about what everyone else thinks, and you don’t want to listen.”
She said that if she were speaking to her younger self, her advice would have been to “consult with the tattooer about your ideas and think about uniformity and at least making them look good together”.
“My advice would be to wait until you are 30 to know who you are as an adult because there is no rush if you still want a tattoo,” she added.
