Carpe Diem (Forever)

Ok guys, I know this might seem crazy, but we have a confession to make. While traveling through the Islands of Southern Thailand, we just had such an amazing time that we needed to do something to commemorate the experience. One night, we were drinking jungle-juice out of small beach toys (aka “buckets”) and as we were walking down the street, someone said, “Hey, where are you from?” when we answered, “The United States”, he followed with “Want to get a tattoo?” How could we say no? So, to consecrate the memory of our life-altering experience laying on the beach, getting wasted, and partying until 6am, we got matching tattoos. Enormous ones. On our backs. In a language neither of us speaks or reads. Testifying to our love of life and fierce commitment to living each moment to the drunkes…I mean, fullest.

Oh wait, that wasn’t us. It was EVERYONE ELSE.

Seriously. In just about every town we’ve been to in Thailand, but especially in the south near the “party towns” on many of these islands/beaches, there are probably more tattoo parlors than restaurants. There are books upon books of designs and photos of the artists’ previous work covering the walls. The artists themselves are also walking advertisements for the possibilities as many are covered nearly head to toe with body art. What’s more, I don’t know how many confounding factors were at play here, but it just seemed to me that there was a TON of body art (tattoos) on the other travelers (mostly non-American) in all these places. What’s the story here? Do the type of people who come to Thailand just have more tattoos? Is body art that much more popular outside the US?

I don’t know the answer to those questions but let me tell you what I do know. A whole slew of those tattoos were acquired right here in Thailand. Most likely while the recipient was drunk with his/her friends providing moral support and/or criticism from the sidelines. The tattoo shops stayed open late. And by late I mean ALL NIGHT. I can’t tell you how many intoxicated people we saw stumbling into tattoo parlors about to turn their bad decisions into permanent ones. First of all, who wants to get tatted up at 4am by the guy who’s been working for 8 hours straight? Second of all, it should be illegal for these places to stay open past midnight when people have made their way through their second or third bucket. That or they should have a mandatory breathalyzer test as you walk in the door. Or maybe a 24 hour waiting period, like when you try to buy a gun in the US.

In any case, I’ll report more seriously now that neither one of us was tempted into any decisions we’ll regret later. Moms and dads, remember this next time you feel like questioning our judgment.