I have a friend who is a mom of two young kids, her husband's a police officer (very calm, polite, and smart, the kind of person you'd want to show up in a heated situation because he kind of oozes 'chill'), and she's a teacher at an alternative school. She is very smart, herself, well spoken, the works.

And she is TATTED UP. Seriously so. She loves it.

At any rate, I have told my children also that Ms. So and So is a grownup, and she is able to make decisions about her skin that will stick with her until she turns 100. But most of us can't do that--our ideas of what's pretty change all the time! To drive home that point, I showed her my HS yearbook with all the crazy 1988 hairstyles and waist-high jeans.

Can you imagine if we swore an oath to always choose the same hairstyle or pants or *gasp* font for the rest of our lives? Ms. So-and-So has been around long enough to know how styles change, so she's got her eyes open and knows what she's doing. Me, no, I couldn't do it, and neither could 99% of other people. I mean, my god, look at what I did to my hair...

She got it.

I got a tattoo at my mom's suggestion when I was 17 and I totally regret it.

I have a tattoo and have gone with a friend when she got one elsewhere and both places had an iron clad no one under 18 rule.