This recent Huffington Post piece about couples choosing tattoos over rings to symbolize their commitment to each other really caught my attention.
Some of them are really well done and some are downright cheesy. Personally, I have a particular fondness for No. 5 – the Wisconsin tats.
A tattoo artist friend once told me to never do this. Getting a marriage tattoo or a lover’s name inked on your skin is just asking for heartbreak, he said.
But I did it any way. And when the relationship ended, close friends asked me if I was going to have it removed or covered up or altered like Johnny did with his "Winona Forever" tattoo. (Apparently, it now reads "Wino Forever.")
I thought about having mine altered, too, but decided against it. Whether a relationship works out or not, if it affected you in a way that changed you forever, good or bad, then the tattoo becomes a tree ring, a war wound, a tribute to what was.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
