America is an open country, so people do everything they are willing to do without taking care of other people's thinking. I grew up in China which is a traditional country with little tolerance to any undisciplined behaviors. Therefore, people in China cannot accept my tattoos. We Chinese see people with tattoos as monsters. They don't believe I am a good guy and even don't believe I am a student. They look at me with a kind of weird eyes and keep me as far as possible away from them.

I have three tattoos. The first one is a dragon on my chest. I had it with my most close friend for celebrating my 18th birthday. The reason of choosing a dragon as tattoo was, at that time, it was very popular to see a movie which is about the sinister gangs. The bad guys in that movie had dragon tattoos so I thought that dragon was extremely cool and I wanted to deter other people from bullying me and to show how brave I was. Sometime I recall it and find that I was quite naive at that time. After half a year I had my second tattoo which is a Chinese word "Yi" on my arm. It means to be honest to my friends. I continued to have the third tattoo on my arm. It is an Egypt image likes a snake. I heard that this image can keep me healthy, lucky and safe. I found it was very interesting to have painting on my body because a lot of people felt amazing and unbelievable when saw them although it was badly painful. I thought that I was the bravest people all over the world and I did not fear of anything. I am so self-centered that I thought I could do anything I want to do.

My parents did not know I have tattoos until I had them for 1 year. One day I was sleeping in my room. My father came in and saw my tattoos on my body. He was shocked by the strange images on my body and said to me, "Son, I feel very sorry about what you did. I am your father. I gave you life and strong body. So stop destroying them from now on." I felt it was so stupid to hurt my own body for fun. I hurt my father's heart and I started to know the harm of the tattoos.

Even in America, some people still feel that it is not good to have tattoos. Like Professor Bai wrote on class blog, "When I think carefully, I find that I do dislike people with tattoo, thinking them as barbarous, offensive, or as someone from underground, mafia, or criminals. As a result, when I saw someone with tattoo, I would keep myself away from him as far as possible." I also feel other people do not like me when they know I have tattoos. As one of my friends said, "You know, only people have been in jail have tattoos." It really hurt my heart badly. Anyway, I regret what I did more and more strongly. I also know people would think something bad on me when they see my tattoo. I have seen a lot of films. The bad guys often have a couple of huge tattoos on their bodies. In some public places I even cannot show my arm to others. Once at my mother's birthday, I was in a restaurant with my family members and my mother's friends. I had to hide my arm into my cloth in case of other people seeing my tattoos because if they saw it, they would say something what make my mother uncomfortable. I even do not dare to swim in swimming pool. I was afraid of other people seeing my tattoos. I was scared to destroy my good impression by showing my tattoos. So I have never swum in the gym of our campus. That is one of the most pitiful things for me when studying at C.W Post.

I clearly knew the disadvantages of having tattoos and also my father required me to remove them, so I went to hospital to remove my tattoos but it turned out to be not that easy. Firstly it was terribly expensive even more expensive than having tattoos. Then it was also much more painful than have tattoos. I tried for twice but those tattoos cannot be completely removed. When I was lying on the bed in the hospital and having my tattoos removed, I was very, very regretful. If I knew how hard it would be to remove tattoos before I had them, I would never have tattoos. I made a decision that I would never do those stupid things from that day on.

In the following days, I slowly understood the significances, or advantages of tattoos. One day, I was staying in my room and doing my homework at midnight. Two American guys knocked the door of my room and asked me to hang out with them. Those guys took me to a dark corner of the campus and gave me something like cigarette. I asked them what that was. They told me that this small thing called marijuana. I smoke that for 2 times then my breath got hotter and hotter. I felt like I was drunk and everything I saw was shaking. It was the toughest time I had ever had and I managed to go back to my room. In the next morning, I suddenly realized that the marijuana was a kind of illegal drug in American. I have to say I was enticed at that time because I have heard that to smoke marijuana is quite enjoyable and after smoking it people are going to get very high and comfortable. I knew I need more marijuana. I went out of the room and thought to go to those guys' room for marijuana. At that moment, I recalled something made me regret badly. That was tattoos. I recalled the pain I had and the decision I made. I looked at my tattoos, clearly remembered the feeling of being regretful. I did not knock at the door. On the way back to room, I knew my tattoos saved my life.

What make me different from others were my tattoos. I started to change my opinion of tattoos. Now I thought that it is quite ordinary to have tattoos. Therefore, those tattoos have become part of my life. I cannot lose them now. They help me to remember the experiences I ever had. When other people see my tattoos I would tell them my story about them. I am very sure that nobody would think that I am a bad guy. Sometime I feel weak, and tempted by something bad, I would see my tattoos and recall the pain of have it and remove it. It calms me down and makes me feel comfortable. I know I gain more than people who do not have tattoos. I know I can control myself better than them. Although some people do not exactly understand the stories of my tattoos, although they do not like people with tattoos and keep them away, I believe that I can be better than the people without them. I am quite confident that my tattoos will bring me a lot of good things and good ideas.