Permanent

Why didn't someone tell me that tattoos are really permanent? (Besides my mother, who fell to her knees and wept when she realized that I did, in fact, go with my boyfriend to the tattoo parlor and get inked.)

I still feel really bad about that.

A 20-year-old has no concept of "never coming off." At that age, I knew everything and nothing at all; a dangerous thing. I thought the lily, and later the butterfly, were awesome and indicative of where I was in life. So deep and meaningful, I'm sure.

And now the darn things won't come off.

My wedding day, a formal dinner, a trip to the beach....anytime I show my feet or shoulders, there they are. Mocking me.

I've been too chicken to have them removed, I hear it is more painful than childbirth; I barely made it out of that.

I changed my mind after the precious girls in my Sunday School class all insisted I give them "butterfly tattoos like Miss Sara!" All 6 of them went home from Sunday School that day with a Moses color sheet and a purple butterfly and a stern warning from Miss Sara that only silly girls get real tattoos.

This silly girl knows from personal experience.