Last week, eighteen year old Kimberley Vlaminck sued her tattoo artist after receiving fifty-six stars tattooed on her face. Kimberely, who insists on having asked for just three stars, claims to have fallen asleep while being tattooed, waking up with much more than she bargained for. While this must have been a scary experience for the young girl, there are a few parts of the story that are unclear. How can someone sleep through the pain of a tattoo on a very sensitive part of their body? And on their face? Maybe Kimberley made a spontaneous, uninformed choice when she asked for her tattoos and wasn’t ready for the consequences. It’s important to remember that getting a tattoo is a serious decision that should be well thought out and discussed with your family. Tattoos are permanent, and can cost up to thousands of dollars to remove. If this is what happened to Kimberley, it’s understandable that she may be regretting her decision now. As of now, the tattoo artist has agreed to pay for half the cost of laser tattoo removal, but even that will leave scars.

-Julie, CYWH Summer Writing Intern