The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

Teacher Jessica Kaufman on her love for body art

Kaufman’s flower tattoo took a total of two hours to ink. They are just one out of the seven that she has. Source: Shannon Lin

How many tattoos do you actually have?

I have 7 [laughs]. When I was eighteen I wanted one because at the time, I thought they were pretty. Most of my tattoos are flowers and I wanted a flower so I got a lily with a big plant thing that takes up my lower back. I decided that I didn’t like the “little” tattoos that everyone was getting and so I wanted to get a big one. Part of the reason was also because my parents were always like “Don’t get a tattoo!” so I was like “Yeah! I’m going to get a tattoo!”

How do you come up with the designs for your tattoos?
Most of mine are flowers. Except for one, which is a phoenix, most of my tattoos don’t have any significance or anything. I just thought about what I would want on my body forever; what I could handle looking at forever, and flowers are always designs that I like. I always pick colors that I like and my tattoo artist and I will talk for a couple of minutes and then he’ll draw something for me. I can’t draw at all. I’m pretty sure if I did it, it would look like something a 5 year old did.

Would you ever let a student design something for you?

It depends on what it was. You know being a tattoo artist is incredibly hard and [a tattoo is] permanent. It’s not like a painting which you can go back and change so I respect the artist’s work like that. And if any student is talented enough to draw something like that, then I’d go for it. I mean I don’t know if I would ever get it, but I’d definitely let them influence a design.

What are the meanings if any, behind your tattoos?
My tattoos are less about what they actually are except the phoenix on my leg, which I got after a really, really difficult year in my life and it symbolizes strength and the fact that I was able to overcome [my adversities]. That is the only one for which the image itself is significant. The rest of them have to do with times in my life that I got them. I’ve gotten one worked on every year of my life since I was 18 so it’s about when I decided to do them. Like I got my first one when I was 18, my second one when I was 19 and I had just started dating somebody and I got another after we had broken up. It just reminds me of the times I had in my life rather than a specific image.

A total of four hours were spent on this tattoo which Kaufman had completed in two sessions which is normal because the pain of the needle is unbearable after too long a sitting. Source: Shannon Lin

What was the most memorable moment related to your tattoos?
They’re all really painful? [Laughs]. I remember when I was getting my first one, the shop I got it at had a back room with a little window that the artist could look out of to see if somebody was at the lobby and I had stood up for a break because you get really cramped from sitting in the same position so I got up for a break. I stood up and turned around and there were these people walking by on the street outside and they were just looking in [pause]. My first tattoo was of my entire lower back, it was not a small one and I’m a small person and so their eyes popped out from the back of their heads. That’s the only thing I can remember being particularly memorable other than certain parts being painful.

Of all your tattoos, which one is your favorite?
I have dahlias along my rib cage on both sides and those are probably my favorite. They’re just pink and yellow flowers that look like a sunset. I started them, it took me two years to get them finished, when I was 24 so about four years ago.

How much time do you think you have spent in total on your tattoos?
Probably about 50 to 100 hours? Somewhere in there. A lot of time because you can’t do it all at once; your body runs out of adrenaline.

How have your tattoos affected your work or personal life either beneficially or detrimentally?
I think they are more accepted so I don’t really get any detrimental effects but when I first started getting them, I was really nervous because I knew that I wanted to become a teacher and so I didn’t want that to affect my job so I purposely put them in places where I could cover up easily. When I knew it was going to be seen, I got stuff that wasn’t offensive, something that people wouldn’t comment on too much. But people do react very weirdly sometimes to tattoos and I don’t know why. I had a woman come up to me in a grocery store where I bent down to get a loaf of bread and she literally came up behind me and pulled up my shirt to see my tattoo and I was like “Excuse me, what are you doing? I don’t know you!” [laughs]. They just think that because you have [a tattoo] that it’s okay to do something like that? I’m not really sure. I mean I haven’t seen somebody and been like “Hey! Let me just see your tattoo”.

How do you deal with people’s reactions?
I’m so used to it now. I have a lot of tattoos that are really big and that cover most of my body but you just can’t see most of them. So it’s kind of like when I go swimming and stuff like that when people get a little bug eyed, especially people who don’t know me that well. So that’s always a conversation starter like “Wow. Why did you get all that?” and my answer is always “Because I wanted to”.

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