What are you saying about yourself?

It seems teens are expressing themselves in a whole slew of ways these days: myspace, Youtube, facebook, and even on their own bodies. Last night I was watching American Idol (I already mentioned that I am a reality TV junkie so back off). There was the most stunning girl I have ever seen. And, no, I am not talking about the cheap girl in the bikini. ( I really hope she looks back on her appearance on AI and cringes at how she was dressed and how she behaved) Back to the beautiful girl, she had a classic beauty, her skin was flawless, her make-up was just right and her hair was coiffed to perfection. She looked like a glamorous movie star out of the 40s. Then they did the full body pan and that is when I noticed she was covered in ink. From her shoulders down to her toes she had tattoos.
She talked about how deliberately the tattoos had been done so as to be sure she never has a stuffy office job. Let's just suppose that this music thing does not work out for her. Perhaps she even falls in love, marries and has beautiful babies. But after a while her wonderful husband says, you need to get a paying job to help take care of our family. Well the nice paying office job is out, thanks to her infinite wisdom at 18. My husband said, "I hope she is good at saying do you want fries with that?" None of us know what the future holds for us, but I can tell you what has been ruled out for her.
A few years ago I was watching a morning news program. They were interviewing teens who were getting breast implants as a birthday or graduation present from their parents. Nothing says a parent loves you more than receiving bigger boobies! The interviewer asked one of the girls, doesn't it bother you that you will not be able to breast feed your babies one day. The girl responded, "No, I don't think that is anything I want to do". At 16 I didn' think it was anything I would want to do either, but I am glad that when I did have babies and my opinion on breast feeding had done a 180 I still had the option available to me.
Decisions are being made that take away future opportunitites. But thanks to the shortsightedness, and superior intelligence of today's teens they don't see a problem with the ink, or the nude pictures they post on their web pages. Before you do anything: naked pics, tattoos, smoke a joint, drink and drive, think of the consequences. Is there an imediate negative consequence to the action you are about to take? What about in 5 years or 10 years from now? I am all for seizing the day as long as you are not destroying the bridges to your future. Just a closing thought because it bothers me, if you think the ink makes you unique take a look around you are just another sheep among the herd. Luckily, for the tattoo industry there is a sucker born every minute, it just doesn't have to be you!