Freedom Area High School's Student Newspaper

FHS Press

Freedom Area High School's Student Newspaper

FHS Press

Freedom Area High School's Student Newspaper

FHS Press

A new trend: Tattoos

“Ink my whole body,” sophomore Jon Ellsworth sings. More and more teenagers gear up and buckle down on the idea of artwork forever being a part of their bodies. Many FHS students have made the decision to permanently engrave artwork onto their skin. “I love tattoos, I really want another one so bad,” said junior Samantha Hildman, who had just recently gotten a cluster of stars on her right foot. The stars are all colored differently to symbolize different types of cancers. She wanted a tattoo with meaning: “they have to mean something, they can’t just be there,” Hildman said. Another student with a tattoo on her foot is Alyssa Applequist; she has the word “Dance” in beautiful italicized lettering with a few stars surrounding it, because she was in dance for most of her life. Anchor for DTV, Christian Lematte, has “We’re loyal like brothers” stamped across his chest, as does one of his longtime friends, Mike Flook. The pair got them together to symbolize their friendship. At age 13, freshman Allan Conforti had a large cross tattooed onto his upper arm bearing his last name; many of his family members have a cross tattooed on their bodies because they are Catholic. Conforti plans on getting a few more tattoos in the near future, such as two stars, one on each elbow. Junior Jacquie Cook is no stranger to tattoos: she has a turtle behind her ear, a heart with her sister’s name in it, and Finding Nemo’s Squirt. She got the turtle behind her ear and on her foot to exemplify her younger cousins, Jacob and Devin. The heart on her leg is her most meaningful tattoo; it is in remembrance of her older sister Marina, who died from leukemia in March of 1998. Taryn Martin, junior, was first tattooed at age 14 and got the same one redone when she was 16. She has a butterfly branded on her hip with some swirls around it. Martin says she got it to remind her of what she was into when she was young because everything will probably be different when she’s older. Martin’s father is a tattoo artist and he did the newest part of her tattoo. She is planning on getting her next one either on her side or the top of her shoulder. Another inked-up Freedom student is Matt Piccinini, who has four. Matt’s first tattoo is the one on his back, a large cross with “Psalms 23," which his parents got for him. They didn’t get him the other three he has; those were more of surprises. Piccinini has barbed wire wrapped around his upper arms and also on his forearm where he has the name “Lewis” inscribed. Lewis was his name before he was adopted. All together, he spent about $700 and he plans on getting more later on. Some other students that are inked are Matt Maragone and Ryan Heckman with their initials, Jessica Jankowski, who has stunning Chinese symbols from her neck down the top of her spine, and Jordan Mercandante, who has a Chinese symbol as well on the back of his neck meaning “strength.” In beautiful cursive lettering, Putri Mesing has the phrase “God’s Will” on the right side of her hip.