The tattoo and body piercing industry has gone through such an evolution, especially over the last several years in terms of acceptance. Like I’ve mentioned before, people with tattoos were always looked down upon as low-life’s or seedy characters. It’s nice to see that things are changing. It’s not perfect, but we’re getting there.

I remember like it was yesterday being shunned and discriminated against myself. I had a nurse practitioner refuse to touch me during a physical because I was tattooed and pierced. She told me that I was disgusting and I should be ashamed of myself for disgracing my body in such a way and then walked out of the exam room.

I was humiliated. I was only 18 years old at the time and didn’t have the guts to stand up for myself. I sheepishly put my clothes back on and left with my head hung low. That was the first time something like that had ever happened to me, but sadly, it wouldn’t be the last.

We’ve been ignored, given dirty looks and even given the cold shoulder when we’ve been out shopping, on vacations or just walking down the street. It’s obnoxious, yes, but you learn to take it in stride. The funniest time was when we were denied a dog from a breeder. This woman denied us over the phone without even seeing us.

The conversation I had with this woman went really well…..at first. She liked that I was a preschool teacher. She told me all about her grandkids and their preschool experience. We talked about her dogs and how cute the breed was. She even told me that she still had two puppies available and invited us to come and see them. That all changed when she asked me the next question.

“Now, tell me about your husband. What does he do for a living?” Without hesitation I told her. The words tattoo and pierce must have made her a mute because there was stone cold silence on the other end. Hello??

“I’m sorry, I was mistaken. The pups have been spoken for already. I’m sorry you wasted your time.” Click. Just like that, the conversation was over.

The worst is when our girls are the victims of bigotry solely based on adults’ opinions of us. Discriminate against me all you want, I don’t care. Just don’t treat my kids badly based on your close minded opinions. That has to be the most frustrating and difficult part of all of this.

There have been a few occasions where that has happened, but there was this one mom in particular that really pissed me off. Our girls went to school together and we had talked before at parent functions and during drop off/ pick up times for play dates. She was, I thought, a nice person. Again, that all changed once she met Augie.

They hadn’t met before because of his work schedule, but when they finally did meet, she let her true colors shine like the sun on a hot summer day. When Augie was picking our daughter up at this woman’s house, she caught a glimpse of his arms, her smile went to a look of pure disgust. She couldn’t have pushed our daughter out her front door fast enough. He didn’t say anything since the girls were right there. He just said goodbye and brought her home.

It wasn’t until she came home from school the next day hysterical, practically inconsolable that we learned how awful this woman really was. This woman’s daughter told our little girl on the playground that her mom said they could no longer play or have sleepovers because she didn’t “trust” her dad. She went on to say that she was told her daddy was a bad person and it wasn’t safe for her to come to our house anymore. The word jail came up a few times. The mom pretty much slammed our family based on his two arms and now her daughter was following suit.

We sat her down and talked about discrimination and how there are those out there that assume tattooed people are automatically bad. This was difficult to explain to a seven year old because she had never experienced anything like that before. To her, daddy was perfect.

I called the mom only to get her voice mail, repeatedly. She never called me back and avoided me like the plague at the school. Coward. Thankfully this story has a happy ending….they moved.

This experience however, was a blessing in disguise. It allowed us to start talking with our girls about how important it is not to judge a book by its cover. They’ve learned that they should to get to know a person and base your opinions on who they are and not by how they look like or what they do. Easier said than done, I know.

Nowadays, with body art being so prevalent in society, it's not as bad as it was. Sure, there are those that are still closed to the idea that tattooed/pierced people are nice and believe we'll turn you into a criminal, but oh well. It's their loss if they don't want to get to know us.