new tattoo for the college kid...

oaklandmom
Mon, 26 Feb 2007 20:07:05 +0000

Oh, goodness, a little tattoo and she’s over 18. I wouldn’t fuss. But the story did remind about a year ago one of my “girls” (neighborhood kid without parents involved in her life) came to my house. She was 16 at the time and was living with her grandmother in another city. I noticed something on her back. I asked what it was and she showed me a tattoo that covered at least a quarter, if not a third of her back and says “Unique”. I asked if she had her grandmother’s permissions and she said no and that she was certain her grandmother would never notice it. I did, why wouldn’t her grandmother and how did she get it without permission. I then learned she was had gotten a fake I.D. Yikes. (And she then let it slip she’d been staying in Oakland with her boyfriend, playing house in a vacationing relative’s empty home). I called her grandmother, thinking her grandmother would rein her in, but instead grandma kicked her out on to the streets. Though the girl was furious with me she did come stay with me until she found another relative who would take her in and eventually admitted that she’d done it because she hated living with grandma. She’s now living with another relative and hopefully will graduate from high school this year. And I hear she’s even applying to colleges.
I guess the moral of the story…things could always be worse. And 18 year olds make their decisions and there’s not much one can do.