My Dear Friends of Inked Really I get tattooed now to feel better in my skin but it’s no longer about the process of being in the chair on bed getting that done and now I’m like I want to look how I feel so it’s tough but I’m still gonna do it I don’t I don’t see myself stopping getting tattooed.
My name is Megan Elizabeth I go by tarangalila on the social medias and I collect tattoos on my body other people’s tattoos I grew up in Upstate New York primarily so it’s there’s Albany which is the capital and then outside maybe like 15 minutes is Latham that’s where that’s where I.
Had my stomping grounds had my first jobs oh my God had my first kiss you know that’s it in a very baby nutshell if I can say so I don’t know why I have so many tattoos I did not grow up being like Oh I want to be you know changing my body and looking like this and whatever whatever I really didn’t I I.
Never really thought about it I got my first tattoo at 18 um kind of as a birthday present to myself and uh it was my Ode to my faith at the time being born again Christian so it’s my religious tattoo and I thought it was like very bad ass if I do say so myself and I was walking around I’m like yo how.
Cool is this at that time I’m like and at this time I’m like this is my body and this is this is something I strongly believe in and I want this to mean something and I want it to feel good and I want to show I want to show people that that’s that’s this is my thing you know My Views and my ideas have changed.
From then I now get tattoos that don’t mean a lot to me because I don’t want to end up hating them and I don’t want their meaning to change for me I have gone through ups and downs with the first tattoo saying oh I want to cover it oh I want to remove it oh I don’t want to do any of that and I think I I think I kind of want to.
Memorialize it um it’s my very first piece it was definitely symbolic of a time in my life and Aiden it does take me back there when I think about I can’t see it’s on my back hashtag [__] stamp uh Jesus shrimp sandwich um so it’s I can’t see it so when I when I think about it or when I do get a.
Glimpse of it it actually does remind me of a good time in my life even though there’s a lot of trauma surrounding that it does it does remind me of good stuff you can’t be heavily tattooed without having a name tattooed on you so obviously I had that as a dare I was.
Dating this person and like two months in and I’ll be honest with you I know that this is not an even trade but he’s like I’ll get my nose pierced if you you and I was like yeah that’s so so he got that and I got the name and I obviously regretted it um and then got it removed like 10 years.
Later and now where it was is covered anyway I can’t say that the name had a crazy amount of meaning because it was a dare and we were dating for two months but um my chest piece had way more significance uh emotionally for me and um oddly enough it had to do with that same person I.
Think it was like a month after I completed it and this is another one that I had designed with my tattooer it meant a lot to me I saw somebody else that had the same exact one and I was so insulted and I was so hurt because I was so excited to have a piece that was mine that was just mine and I created it and it was so meaningful and so deep to me.
And somebody just [__] put it on then just slapped it on their skin they’re just like yeah whatever like that’s a cool design and it it just made me sad and I was like I’m not gonna I’m not gonna get tattoos that mean stuff to me anymore because it hurts it like breaks my heart so I don’t.
Want it I don’t wanna I don’t want to get heartbroken I had no clue about tattoo modeling I had no idea about people being heavily tattooed uh in in the way of the constant curiosity of people on the outside whether you’re walking down the street whether it’s the internet whether whatever I really I just didn’t even.
Think about it I was like oh I just I want these things they make me feel better that was a time in my life where I’m like this pain feels good for me this is my outlet and this is my release um not anymore my body has changed and she don’t want to get tattooed anymore but at that time that was my therapy that that the sound.
Of the machine the smell of the Glide the Aftercare all of that that was what was helping me it really helped me ah so much now I mean now I’ve done therapy but that was that at the time I was friends with um with this person on Facebook and they had posted a photo and I remember seeing that she had a word right under here I didn’t know what.
It was and uh but I was like that’s dope I want to do something like that so I picked breathless I don’t know why but I liked it a lot of people were getting beautiful Reckless blah blah like all this other stuff and I’m like well I like Breathless and then little did I know that now throughout my life people are asking oh what is that what I could.
Say uh and I tell them and they say breakfast and I said no no no no breathless without breath so it’s funny because the older generation was like oh like the movie and then the younger generation is like breakfast I kind of fake wish it did say breakfast and I think that’s funny and I think I.
Think that that’s more of my style and my humor now because this was more like serious like I love this I was I was absolutely in love with it obsessed I thought it was great I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to get a job if I needed one um because half is like a [__] job.
Stopper oh spoiler alert I got a job uh and then people started talking it’s people started talking to me more about tattoos that they would notice that and then they would notice that I have other ones so then you know conversation starter for sure.
But my life you know I don’t know that it changed a lot because I was already getting into the Super visible tattoos you know this is definitely a piece that I love for sure I don’t think it changed anything I got it because one of my absolute number one favorite movies is Romeo and Juliet from the mid 90s and.
That’s the reference I was like I want artwork that looks like that here and he was like bet there you go sucked it was so bad but I love it I’m obsessed with this I love this piece he drew on me with blue pen and red pen.
And it was six sessions you drew it to my body and it fits me and I’m he covered some scars that I really didn’t want to see anymore and they now they look beautiful I have become incredibly Discerning when I’m getting tattooed Now by you know different people I want to make sure my spirit feels good with.
These people because they’re breaking my skin they’re cutting me my life force I know it sounds dramatic but my life force is being exposed and I want to make sure that I feel good with the person that’s tattooing me and vice versa obviously it’s a lot of trust it’s a lot of research because you have.
To be aware of what you’re getting how it’ll heal all of the in between and you also have to know your body and make sure you know how to heal it I hate that basically the reason why I got into getting a lot of tattoos is because I was hurt by a certain person by events.
And getting tattooed became my therapy and I King hate that it is tied to that person in whatever way so I can’t say I would change anything as life-changing as that event was for me I can’t say that I wouldn’t go through it again oh no I wouldn’t change anything.
Please
Meghan has been getting tattooed for decades and she’s learned one major lesson—she doesn’t want her tattoos to mean anything. After seeing blatant copies of a design she poured her very soul into creating alongside her artist she was absolutely heartbroken. We spoke with Meghan about the intimate experience of being tattooed, the way she wants to memorialize her first tattoo and much more in this episode of Heavily Inked.
Meghan Elizabeth: https://www.instagram.com/tarangaleela/
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