Since the popularization of tattoos in the seventies, more and more people across the world are becoming inked. Now, in 2024, it is not uncommon to see people of all professions with a visible tattoo. Many educators and those who have just started their teaching career have chosen to get tattoos. Since it has become more socially acceptable to have a tattoo, many people use body art as a way to express themselves.
“It’s what feels natural to me,” Zachary Pepper said. “It’s just an extension of who I am.”
Regular staff members at White Station High have also been seen around campus sporting their tattoos, one being Algebra 1 teacher Kelci Massey.
“The first one I ever got is the one on my side and that is of a rook bird,” Massey said. “It’s based off the card game Rook, which I used to play with my great-grandma all the time, and I was super close with her … And then the one that’s behind my elbow is my son’s birthdate.”
Most of the time, those with tattoos have a purpose behind each design. Pepper says that almost every tattoo on his body holds a special meaning.
“So on my leg here, my family name is Pepper, so all of my immediate family members have a pepper,” Pepper said. “Hot peppers, chili peppers, ghost peppers, bell peppers … My horror leg — I do horror movie makeup and special effects, so all of my scary stuff and my horror movies and things that influenced me to wanna get into that kinda art.”
Tattoos not only represent past stories but create new memories as well. Pepper shared a memorable moment for both him and his wife that resulted from one of his tattoos.
“I have a tebori style tattoo — which is a traditional Japanese hand-poking — and I went to Las Vegas to get it and my then-girlfriend helped me get the tattoo,” Pepper said. “She helped me save up the money, she helped me get the appointment from one of three grandmasters in the world and I proposed when we landed and we got married that night after I got my tattoo.”
Since both Massey and Pepper work as teachers, they often get asked about their tattoos from students. Some of Massey’s students seem particularly interested in her smiley face tattoo.
“I had a student this year and he thought I wrote a smiley face on my arm everyday before work,” Massey said. “And then everybody always compliments the ginkgo one.”
Though both teachers have several tattoos, they each agree that deciding to get a tattoo takes a lot of consideration. Pepper especially takes a strong stance on the content and creation of a tattoo.
“Before you get tattooed,” Pepper said, “first you need to see the image, get a copy of it, put it somewhere where you can see it every single day, and if you can look at that for six to eight months and not wanna change one thing about that picture, you might be ready to start doing research on finding a tattoo artist … And with so much information on the internet and Google, we should really not be getting tattooed out of our houses anymore. There’s too many artists, there’s too much access to them, there’s too much access to information to find out who’s good … [be] informative.”
