Emma Lohrs fell in love with tattoos when she was 16. Last month, she finally decided to get one — a Spirograph-looking pattern on her right ankle — inspired by a toy she played with at her grandmother’s house as a child.

“My grandma has a huge collection of little trinkets,” Lohrs, a senior applied math and economics major, said. “One of them was this little metal circle that flattens and expands. I would play with it all the time when I would go to her house, and I loved that it was always there throughout my life.”

The idea for the pattern came from Lohrs being partial to design tattoos, rather than quote tattoos. The toy reminds her of her childhood and spending time with her family.

Knowing her mother didn’t approve of tattoos, Lohrs decided not to tell her before getting inked. Instead, she simply posted a photo to her snapchat story with the caption, “sorry mom!!!,” knowing fully well that her mom followed her on Snapchat.

“I knew that she was going to find out eventually, so I figured that finding out via my Snapchat story would be fine enough,” Lohrs said.

Although her mother was shocked at first, she learned to appreciate the tattoo.

When Lohrs looks at her tattoo now, she feels satisfied that she actually went through with getting it. She has always been intrigued by all types of body modification.

“When I was 16, I really wanted to get a lot of piercings,” Lohrs said. “When I asked my mom, she was like, ‘absolutely not.’ And then I was like, ‘oh my god, imagine how pissed she would be if I got a tattoo now?’ Which is weird, because I really like my mom, and I’m honestly not very rebellious. So I’m not sure what was up with that.”

Lohrs hopes to add some more tattoos in the future. For her next tattoo, she plans to get the words “There will be light,” a line from her favorite musical “Next to Normal.” Additionally, she wants to get a small Goldfish cracker on one of her fingers, though she’s not positive about that idea.

Said Lohrs: “I just feel like I would probably really regret that when I’m 60, you know what I mean? I won’t regret this, though. This one’s cool.”

Published on May 1, 2017 at 8:33 pm

Contact Julie: jlmccu01@syr.edu