AgNO3+skin→brown stain

I have a large stain on my middle finger. It's brown. It's splotchy. It won't go away. The D-Mar (aka Dr. Martyr) says that it will take ten to fourteen days for it to come out. It's actually silver nitrate , AgNO3, that has reacted with sunlight to create a brownish-purplish-blackish-grayish color. The same chemical is used in black and white photography film.

I'm not sure why I told you about that. I was looking at my hands, resting gently on the keyboard, trying to think of a profound thing to post when I saw the stain glaring at me. I look like a preschooler who just learned how to use a marker, and didn't use it so successfully. People give me the stink eye when they see my stain. It hurts my feelings. I wish I could yell at them, "I know...I have a large brown stain on my finger and it makes me look ridiculous! But rest assured, it is only silver nitrate that I spilled on my finger during Chemistry and it will vanish within two weeks!" But then I would look more ridiculous then before.

So here's my far out connection. Tattoo's are like stains. It's true. They are splotchy, brown stains that won't go away...ever. Yet, as before, tattoo's are given a bad rap. I have a brown stain from chemistry class. That's all. Not because I'm deficient at using a marker. I want a tattoo. If I got one, it would be because I want to begin to start to define who I am. I want to have a sense of self identification. Though, some people, who have authority over most of my decisions, see it otherwise. They say that it's ridiculous to put ink in your skin. My brown stain, as Dr. Martyr put it, is a "badge of great courage". A tattoo, to me, is a badge, a symbol, almost like a scar that I give myself to identify who I am as a person.

That wasn't profound, I know. Give me a break, I'm only seventeen. I had to say what I had to say. I'll leave the profound words up to those who can write them.