“Teachers are not as conservative as you think,” said North Penn math teacher Ms. Amy Hrinkyak. Once considered an indication of underground culture and even outright rebellion, tattoos have transformed into a more mainstream element of artistic expression. Winston Churchill had an anchor underneath his right arm, Caroline Kennedy had a small butterfly near the crook of her elbow, and Teddy Roosevelt had a tattoo image of his family crest across his chest, but many of our own North Penn teachers have their own unique and meaningful tattoos as well.

Ms. Sakita Tinsley – English Teacher

Tattoos #1 and #2– Lady Bugs on each inner forearm

Timing: First Lady Bug in the summer of 2004,  and the second one in summer of 2006

Meaning: “There’s this movie called Under the Tuscan Sun, well it was novel first.  There’s this one scene, it’s a beautiful movie.  There’s a woman who is distressed, she lost her husband, she lost her home, her career is falling apart, so she moves to Tuscany and she encounters this other woman who seems really loose, but really happy in her life, like ridiculously happy—euphoric almost.  The woman says that when she was little, she used to run and chase lady bugs because she wanted to catch them in a jar, but she couldn’t find them at all.  Out of exhaustion she laid down in a field of sunflowers and when she woke up lady bugs were crawling all over her body. It didn’t freak her out, because she realized that everything she needed and everything she really wanted she already had and it would come to her when it was time for her to have it.”

Tattoo #3 – Ankh on the outer forearm

Meaning: “It’s kind of a combination of two symbols; one being the symbol of fertility and the other the combination of a man and a woman.  Basically, it’s just how people are complex and no one is completely maternalistic or paternalistic. We all are multiple things.”

Future Tattoo Plans: She plans on getting future tattoos, but in places that can be covered by a shirt or pants because “[she] [doesn’t] know how accepted it is to have full sleeve, although [she] thinks it would be kind of cool.”

Ms. Amy Hrinyak – Math Teacher

Tattoo: an M.C. Escher drawing called “Liberation” on the inner forearm

Timing: February of 2012.  “I thought about it for about two years,” she said.

Meaning: “Well, it depends who asks me,” she said. “Sometimes I just say I like it because it’s mathematical, and that’s the official meaning.  But to me, what it really meaning is ‘breaking out of the mold that people put you in.” Once an engineer who hated all of her jobs, Hrinyak realized that her life was headed in the wrong direction.  “In my life, I started off doing exactly what I was supposed to do, and at some point I just went off on my own not following the normal path that most people follow.  It starts off with the triangles all in a row and then eventually the birds fly away, and I feel like that’s how I am.”

Ms. Patti Kinsey – English Teacher

Tattoo #1: A lotus on flower on the top of the wrist

Timing: “I’m not going to tell you how old I was because it was fairly recently and a woman doesn’t reveal her age, but it was about ten years ago, so I didn’t do it in my youth.”

Meaning: “A lotus flower is a Buddhist symbol, and I’ve had a great interest in Eastern religions. The story of the lotus is that it’s a symbol of spiritual rebirth and renewal.  The flower grows up through the mud.  It looks kind of ugly for a while, but then it comes and it blossoms.  In the Buddhist tradition, it symbolizes achievement of Nirvana and reaching that amazing place of spiritual enlightenment.  But I kind of see it as an ongoing process that you’re always trying to achieve that part of understanding and there might be another lotus flower that come up and it’s always moving. I take in the spiritual meaning, but I also see it as a daily reminder to grow as well.”

Decision: “While I was in graduate school at Arcadia, I was in class with a professor who was very interesting.  He had a course called ‘the word and the image’ looking at the way an image is always competing with the word. He was writing a thesis and he was using us as a test group for that.  One of the assignments was to go to a tattoo parlor and look at all these tattoos and see why people get them, looking at the power of the image.  At the time I did this experiment, not a lot of people were getting tattoos; it was mostly people in the military or people who were openly rebellious.  It wasn’t seen as an artistic expression back then. I found that, for guys, it was sort of a statement of masculinity. Females weren’t typically getting them because it was associated with the underground; it’s a little bit alternative. Now I think with so many people getting tattoos, it’s so much more mainstream than it’s ever been.”

Reaction: “When people ask me, ‘aren’t you worried you won’t like the tattoo when you’re older,’ my response is that when you do a sleeve, or you go a little bit bigger, they’re sort of a recording of where you are in your life at that time. I think I’ll always look back on this and I’ll know when I got this, what I thinking, what I was feeling, and it’s sort of like a little marker.”

Tattoo #2: 3 components on the back of the neck: an elephant, a lotus flower, and an element of design to tie it together aesthetically

Meaning: “I use the eastern religion as an ongoing motif in my tattoos.  There is an elephant Ganesha, which is a Hindu god.  He’s seen as the lord and the destroyer of obstacles and there’s a whole story. Basically, he had his head chopped off at one point, and they wanted to save his life and so they ran and took the head of the nearest animal they could find and it was an elephant.  Ganesha takes care of problems in your past, and I thought it was a cool symbol of protection.”

Mr. Jason Bowers – History Teacher

Tattoo #1: Japanese symbol for baseball on the shoulder

Meaning: “I got it because I like baseball and I was really into Japanese, I took Japanese here at the high school. I just liked Japanese culture a lot and still do.”

Timing: “When I turned 18, I started thinking about what I wanted. I think I got it about 3 months later. I asked my parents first because they were very ‘anti-me-getting-a-tattoo.’ Since I was still living under their roof, I wanted their permission. If they had said no, I wouldn’t have gotten one until I moved out.”

Tattoo#2: Celtic cross that he designed on his back

Meaning: “I initially designed it for me little brother because he wanted a tattoo when he turned 18 and he told me he wanted me to design it.  When I finished drawing it, I realized that I liked it a lot so we both actually went the same day and got the tattoos together.”

Tattoo #3: A record pin on the inside of the upper arm

Timing: “I got it the day I got hired full time. I knew I had wanted it, and I always said that when I got hired full time then I could get my next one.”

Meaning: “I got it because Pearl Jam, their Vitalogy album had all their singles on the CD, and one of my favorite tracks was called ‘Spin the Black Circle,’ which is about playing a record.”

Future Tattoo Plans: “I would definitely get another one because I think they’re a nice expression of individuality, but I’d recommend students to wait until you’re 18.”

Dr. Kathryn Daughton – History Teacher

Tattoo: The quote “never and always” from Pablo Neruda’s poem You Will Remember on the wrist

Timing: “I got it two years ago, so pretty late in life.”

Meaning: “The poem basically talks about a very simple time and about leaving to a place. It says the time is like ‘never and always.’ It’s about a place you go where you think you’ll find nothing, but then you find everything. It related to my life and that’s the reason I love it so much. I never thought I would get a tattoo, I actually swore I would never get one because I said there would never be something that meant so much to me. It was a point in my life where I just kept searching and searching and thinking that there was always something better out there professionally and personally.  What I failed to realize was that I already had everything I ever wanted, like my family and my life and I was just so lucky and blessed. It was about never taking anything for granted and just being in the moment.”

Future Plans: All of my friends that have them and my little sister who is full tattooed–full back, arm sleeves, and everything– they always said once you have one you are going to want more. I didn’t think I would be like that but now I’m thinking about what other profound things I could get. I would get another one on the wrist but that would probably be it.”

Ms. Elizabeth Weizer – English Teacher

Tattoo: Three blue stars on the underside of the right forearm

Timing:  “I got it in the spring of 2008. I was thinking about getting a tattoo for a while, but the day I got it, it was kind of just a spur of the moment decision.”

Meaning: “I am the oldest of three sisters and blue is my favorite color. The artist gave me the artwork to keep for my sisters, but neither of them have taken me up on the offer.”

Future Tattoo Plans: “My husband isn’t a big tattoo person.  He even told his mother that he didn’t have a girlfriend because it was so hard to find a girl without a tattoo.  I tell him all these ideas I have for further tattoos but he’s not really thrilled.  I would love some literature quotes.  I was thinking of getting Emily Dickinson on my rib cage, and Kurt Vonnegut’s quote ‘so it goes’ because he is one of my favorite authors.”

Ms. Beth Abbott – Athletic Trainer

Tattoo #1:  Two eyes and wings on the back of the neck

Timing: “I was 19 and in college. I knew I always wanted a tattoo, but I just needed that big life event.”

Meaning:  “It was right after my grandmother died, so the idea behind it was that I would always have someone watching my back.”

Tattoo #2: “Writing on my ribs that says “가자” which means let’s go in Korean and there is an anchor underneath it”

Meaning: “It’s the name of my dad’s boat”

Experience: “My rib tattoo was the most painful.  The anchor is right on my rib cage, so when I got it, my whole body vibrated.”

Timing: “I was about 20 and I went with another friend, a girl I grew up with”

Tattoo #3: “love, live, life” on the foot

Meaning: “This is going to sound kind of cheesy but it’s a Lil Wayne quote, and I really liked him in college so both my friend and I got it on our feet.”

Ms. Edwards – Athletic Trainer

Tattoo #1: Footprints on the foot

Timing: “I was about 19 and in college.”

Meaning: “I tell people that I like feet, but that’s a lie because I don’t like other people’s feet, I like my feet. I also like footprints so that’s what I did.”

Tattoo #2– Sun on the ankle bone

Timing: College

Meaning: “I wanted a tattoo on my fibula and that one kind of worked. I thought about putting it on my big toe but this worked out better.”

Tattoo #3: A German saying with a moon

Meaning: “It was a phrase my grandmother always used to say in German. This one is my favorite tattoo.”

Reaction: “Honestly, all of my tattoos are in places that I can hide so no one really says anything. Unless I want you to see them or I’m wearing flip flops, they’re hidden.”