Against parents’ wishes

My parents are very conservative and old school people. I wouldn’t say that they’re religious exactly, but they do pertain to certain beliefs. One of these is that they’re very against tattoos, particularly my mother. The ironic thing is that my mum, who is against tattoos, married my dad who is a man that has tattoos. Granted, he didn’t get the tattoos until after they started going out. He got his first tattoo at a highly recommended tattooist near Brisbane airport. I remember when he first told me the story I found it extremely odd that he found a tattoo artist who operated near an airport, but hey, at least the artwork turned out great. He has a drawing of a dragon on his arm and the colours are amazing. The artist successfully used various reds, yellows and greens. Absolutely everything about the piece is just great to look at. His tattoo has inspired my tattoo. I toyed with the idea of telling my parents about my tattoo plans, but whenever I dropped a hint they’d sternly shoot the idea down.

Yesterday I had the stencil applied for my new tattoo. I’ve gotten a dragon similar to my father’s, but mine is designed to look like the child of his dragon. I visited a traditional tattooist to do the job, and I’d say for a first sitting it’s come out great. I showed my parents how it turned out, needless to say, my mother wasn’t impressed. She thought it was a joke initially and begged me to wash the ink off. I told her it wasn’t coming off and that it was permanent. She looked like she was either going to cry, or kill me. My dad’s response was interesting. He didn’t say much except to ask for a closer look. Following this, he remained silent. I swear I saw him crack a tiny smile. Deep down I think he likes how it’s turned out but is scared to say as he doesn’t want to deal with my mother’s wrath.