Congrats on the tat and the lovely, well written story. Nice job Aprill!

Tattooing is an art form, I'll give you that. I've seen some beautiful tats & some down right hideous ones. Bottom line is, what you are doing is permanent & not only will it age (badly) but it most likely will lose whatever meaning it had when it was originally done & then you are stuck with a sagging, wrinkled, faded tattoo that no longer applies to who you are. Just imagine for a second, before you get it, how it could affect your kids in the future. Who wants to have their dad walk them to class with a tear drop tattoo, F***k You or naked ladies tattooed on them? (I saw a dad with a naked lady tattooed on him at a garage sale there, very graphically naked, very visible, saw a guy with the expletive tattooed on his neck & more tear drops than I care to count). Think people, not in this moment in time, but to the future, before you permenantly place something visible to others on your body.

Muchness, really? You could have done that with a Sharpie & will probably wish that you had later on. That is not art, IMO.

What's up with the garish neck line tattoos girls are getting these days? Girls, heads up, in about 20 years your neckline is going to be a few inches lower & God forbid you get a job that frowns on visible tattoos, can you imagine wearing a turtle neck in August in Texas?

Let me guess, most of you are on the North side of forty and you are positively aghast that sort of poppycock, nay, balderdash, is allowed in your morning paper. I'm just glad the creaky old lot of you are kept busy posting your valuable little nuggets of wisdom here and not having to peruse the rest of that decadence that is the 21st century.

anxious - CHECK AND MATE!

Well done!

You must have a limited understanding of the world around you since you only write about yourself. Go to the Salvation Army and serve others. Volunteer in the arts. Then maybe I'll want to read an article about you. Do you not see better ways to spend money in these hard economic times?

why is this person a recurring subject matter in vicad stories ?

This is stupid

Well, I'm at least grateful Aprill chose to be inked with a literary allusion instead of something garish, like a skull on a motorcycle spitting blood. I must say I'm surprised she didn't get her new husband's nickname needled. What is it she calls him? My Sweet Baboo?

Amen BOstinks!!! Coverage of the Little League All Star tournaments held at the sports complex here in Victoria would have been awesome! We even called to ask for coverage. We were told they were short-handed as everyone was on vacation. Must have been the day the teenage wanna be got her tattoo.

The Advocate's sports section has dwindled to next to nothing, but the Advocate has room for this?

As Archie Bunker would have said, "stifle it Advocate", not Edith in this case. Space taking article for real stories that you, the Advocate, will not get from the wire services because that will cause Roberts to pay money, eh?

Really???? This is worth reporting on???? Grow up Aprill Brandon. This isn't Seventeen Magazine!

Those who make comments just want attention...LOL

Those who get tats just want attention...

jared- by the way, the Catholic's don't have "temples"; merely man-made structures beautified for aesthetics purposes in aiding in the worship of God. yet, our bodies are God-made, therefore are true temples worthy of respect, honor and dignity.

while i agree that people should keep their comments to themselves if they disagree with someone's choices, i totally agree that this was NOT WORTHY OF A STORY. if we want others to mind their own business, then we should keep our business off the pages of the paper...THIS IS NOT NEWSWORTHY and in my opinion, not well-written.

Aprill, don't you know your body is a temple...? Food for thought on my three: as a Catholic, our temples are heavily and heavenly decorated filled with all kinds of art!

Zero, nobody made you read the story. Take your negativity somewhere else.

Bravo SuperJeighty!!! I agree with your comment 100%.

Well lol...I really don't know what to say about this article...I mean really?

What I think is sad is why anyone cares what anyone else wants to do to their body. Just because YOU don't like it, that doesn't make it sad, wrong, silly, or stupid.

I don't like American Idol. I think it's sad, stupid, and silly. But am I going to have a problem with people who love it? Not in the least. Just because I don't like it, i'm not going to rain on the parades of people who do love it. Do you know what an *expletive deleted* I would feel like insulting someone in the way you have attempted to insult Aprill and other members of your community? I would slap my own mouth before I said something like this to anyone about their appearance.

My family members approve not one bit of any of my piercings or tattoos. They let this be known to me every time I see them. So, I started givng as good as I got. I insulted their hair, their clothes, their furniture, their accents, so on and so forth, every time we spoke. By the time it was all over with, they felt like real jackholes. Going out of your way to deliberately insult someone's body art is acceptable for some reason. But if we all started insulting each other based on other superficialities, it would make you think twice about being okay with degrading a person for their outer appearance.

There's no difference between commenting on a person's tattoos and telling strangers how ugly their haircut is or how grossly fat they are. If someone came up to you and told you how sad you were for wearing such an ugly shirt, you'd think, "How rude! In any case, why do they care what i'm wearing? It's MY shirt, back off." So unless you want me to follow you around while you shop, eat, or watch television, and make nasty comments about your choices, maybe you should take a step back. It's okay to have opinions, but to be so rude and insulting as you have been to people's faces like this is a different story. You're deliberately trying to hurt people. I hope no one treats you in the same fashion about your own personal choices that affect no one but yourself.

Sad all around. Sad that the VA thinks this is news. Sad that anyone needs to ink gibberish on their body in order to feel better about themselves. Sad that Hepatitis C is so much more likely to be present in your body. Sad, sad and more sad. I wonder if "muchness" is going to be real word in a few years so that your wrist will instantly bring insight to those who see it. Or maybe not. Very sad day.

Aprill, think of this.
After you lose your first tooth you’re headed towards the wrong end of the tattoo to tooth ratio.
That’s the ratio Pathologist use to calculate the social ranking of the subject at hand. Really, ask one.

"Much serious deliberating (and many happy hour drinks) later..."

It sorta begs the question: Does anyone ever do this sober?

What a nerd.