Topper Tats scours our campus to bring you the stories behind the most creative, the most meaningful and the most what-was-I-thinking tattoos inked on our students.

Take a good look around and you’ll notice something interesting: just about everyone has a tattoo. Your little sister has a tattoo, the barista who made your latte has tattoos and even your professor has them. It seems that in this modern day, tattoos have lost their taboo.

Permanent body art has become increasingly popular during our lifetime, and it certainly shows in the flesh masterpieces we see every day. Some people get tattooed to document an important era in their life, some to express their interest in a pop culture phenomenon and some just to make others laugh.

Freshman Emily Simeral sports the Millennium Falcon and two X-Wing fighters from Star Wars on her thigh. Simeral had been considering the tattoo for about four years before she went under the needle.

The hand-written word “meow,” backwards, can be seen on the forearm of senior Ernie White. White chose to have the word tattooed backwards so that he could see it clearly when looking in the mirror. In addition, White has another tattoo on his side: a black stick figure holding a red balloon that he sketched during math class.

Sophomore Ana Reyes has the simple message “everything is connected” written on her shoulder. The phrase is penned in cursive and connected as one word.

Junior Anne Burnett has five tattoos, ranging from portraits of celebrities to a coffee percolator on her calf.

“It’s almost like wearing jewelry when you’re naked,” Burnett said. “It embellishes your own time.”

Reyes feels similar about her body art.

“I can’t imagine any reason to regret my tattoo. It’s such a universal truth that I honestly picture myself applying it to my life years from me.”

Burnett is optimistic about the way the tattoo industry is heading.  She feels that tattooing is much more acceptable now than when she was a kid. Back then it was thought of as white trash, rebellious and too radical, but now it’s seen as a form of art.

“I got [my tattoo] on my shoulder keeping in mind that I might find myself in a professional setting one day,” Reyes said. “But I see the world becoming more accepting of body art, which is really