The Tattoo Mistake
Donation protected
Hey everyone, I hope you’re doing awesome! My name is Jeff, I haven’t done anything like this before, and I haven’t always made the best decisions, and honestly I still don’t at times. Suffice it to say that some of my biggest mistakes include all the things I did to support my drug addiction in the past, my dropping out of high school, my going to prison, and my tattoos at the ages of around 15 and 18.
Today, almost 20 years later, I find myself free from substances (15 years this past March!), graduated from grad school with a Masters in Biblical Counseling (and a massive amount of student debt), working as a pastor at a church I love, and as a therapist at an adolescent residential treatment facility (that’s actually where I’m filming this from today). I have 2 kids, an awesomely amazing wife, and have, by all accounts, turned may life around, thanks to the grace of God, but…I still have these tattoos.
The one I got when I was 15 was done with a homemade tattoo gun made out of a pen tube, a motor from an alarm clock, and a sewing needle. That tattoo is of a naked woman, and that is where the issue is.
As I am watching my 2 year old son grow and understand the world around him, and the 6 month old begin to crawl (sort of), I have been thinking that I don’t want their father, me, to be the first one to show him to see women as objects, or to introduce him to pornography.
Statistics show that they will most likely be exposed to hardcore pornography by the age of 11, and research states that a staggering 94% of all children in the US will see pornography by the age of 14….
I can’t stop that from happening at some point, but I want to be the one whom he can come to, or that I can approach him, and he doesn’t see me as an objectify-er of women. I don’t want to hear, well dad has that tattoo on his back, it must be ok.
Some people might think this is silly, old-fashioned, or that I’m being too paranoid, but I can only tell you that I remember the first pornographic magazine that I found on the ground—vividly. I was probably 8 or 9 at the time. That’s a long time to have an image of an 80’s pornographic magazine stuck in your head. I don’t want to be that for my boys.
I am saving on my own for a tattoo cover up job, but my 2-year-old is noticing everything around him now, and his brother is not far behind. So, I am asking for some help. I’d love to get the tattoo of the woman covered, and the other tattoo, a significantly better tattoo in honor of my father who died 16 years ago, but still doesn’t do him justice, incorporated into the cover up tat.
If you have the ability to help a guy get this done sooner rather than later, then please, by all means donate a little—or a lot. I have the goal of $3,000, and if there is any left-over I will pass it on to someone else in need. I will hopefully find some time to get some estimates for the work soon, but I wanted to get this out there. Thank you for hearing me out, and helping me to give my sons a better chance at coming to their dad when they have questions about how our world views the mothers, daughters, and sisters we should honor, respect, and love.
Today, almost 20 years later, I find myself free from substances (15 years this past March!), graduated from grad school with a Masters in Biblical Counseling (and a massive amount of student debt), working as a pastor at a church I love, and as a therapist at an adolescent residential treatment facility (that’s actually where I’m filming this from today). I have 2 kids, an awesomely amazing wife, and have, by all accounts, turned may life around, thanks to the grace of God, but…I still have these tattoos.
The one I got when I was 15 was done with a homemade tattoo gun made out of a pen tube, a motor from an alarm clock, and a sewing needle. That tattoo is of a naked woman, and that is where the issue is.
As I am watching my 2 year old son grow and understand the world around him, and the 6 month old begin to crawl (sort of), I have been thinking that I don’t want their father, me, to be the first one to show him to see women as objects, or to introduce him to pornography.
Statistics show that they will most likely be exposed to hardcore pornography by the age of 11, and research states that a staggering 94% of all children in the US will see pornography by the age of 14….
I can’t stop that from happening at some point, but I want to be the one whom he can come to, or that I can approach him, and he doesn’t see me as an objectify-er of women. I don’t want to hear, well dad has that tattoo on his back, it must be ok.
Some people might think this is silly, old-fashioned, or that I’m being too paranoid, but I can only tell you that I remember the first pornographic magazine that I found on the ground—vividly. I was probably 8 or 9 at the time. That’s a long time to have an image of an 80’s pornographic magazine stuck in your head. I don’t want to be that for my boys.
I am saving on my own for a tattoo cover up job, but my 2-year-old is noticing everything around him now, and his brother is not far behind. So, I am asking for some help. I’d love to get the tattoo of the woman covered, and the other tattoo, a significantly better tattoo in honor of my father who died 16 years ago, but still doesn’t do him justice, incorporated into the cover up tat.
If you have the ability to help a guy get this done sooner rather than later, then please, by all means donate a little—or a lot. I have the goal of $3,000, and if there is any left-over I will pass it on to someone else in need. I will hopefully find some time to get some estimates for the work soon, but I wanted to get this out there. Thank you for hearing me out, and helping me to give my sons a better chance at coming to their dad when they have questions about how our world views the mothers, daughters, and sisters we should honor, respect, and love.
Organizer
Jeff King
Organizer
North Richland Hills, TX
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