I have a bunch of tattoos. My right arm is sleeved for instance. Not saying that to try to get coolness points here (tbh I don't think tats are even considered "cool" anymore...) but to just make the point that I've got some bad ones I'd rather not have. It's gonna happen if you get enough of them. For instance, I found a painting of a girl in Day of the Dead face paint that I _loved_. Got something inspired by it tattooed on me. A big one at that. The artist who painted said painting ended up being Sylvia Ji[0]. Her stuff is now adorning the bottoms of snowboards and displayed on t-shirts. Would I have gotten that knowing what I know now? Absolutely not. Do I regret it? Eh... not really. At the time that I got it, it was a really different thing to get.

I think the point of a tattoo, the thing that makes them so exciting, is the fact that you can in fact get one that was a mistake and that mistake is permanent. Its inherently a dumb thing to do to yourself and depending on how you look at it, that can either be exciting and life affirming or a reason to never ever set foot in a tattoo studio. Knowing that, you can definitely over think your first one and do something like the author is describing. IMO you just own it. Ok so you got something that someone else has. Whatever! Get more. Get a cover up or get it removed! To me it's kind of an analogy for life: messy, complicated, hard to get out of sometimes. Even getting a bad tat is a ballsy move IMO.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Day-Dead-Other-Works-Sylvia/dp/099333...