Some say art is in the eye of the beholder, but some students would say it’s on their skin.

Caleb Nugent, senior, received his tattoo that spells out the word “perspective” on his forearm last Labor Day. He has a notebook full of ideas and that one “stuck through it all.”

“I feel like a lot of things in my life have either been really crappy or worse,” Nugent said. So, “keeping a positive attitude” and believing that “perspective has always been the best answer” is the main purpose behind his ink.

Typically, tattoos are portrayed as being extremely painful, but according to Nugent, “the pain wasn’t bad at all” and he “loved the feeling.”

As far as work and family goes, he hasn’t gotten any negative comments, just “a lot of long stares trying to read it.”

“[My mom] feels like I should be able to do what I want with my body,” Nugent said. “She even helped pay a little bit of it.”

Dave Wernsman, senior, also had a lot of support from his family when planning for his tattoo.

“They were all for it,” Wernsman said.

The dotted line with the words ‘cut here’ along with one of his favorite quotes on his calf are in honor of his father who had his leg amputated.

As for pain, “the shin hurt, but the calf didn’t,” he said.

A lot of students, like Julia Maxwell, senior, choose to get their tattoos around their eighteenth birthday.

“The pain was bearable. It made me want to run away for the first two minutes, but eventually I got used to it,” Maxwell said.

Her creative side prompted her to draw her own design.

“I chose water lilies because they became my favorite flower the moment I saw Claude Monet’s giant water lily painting at the Nelson Atkins Art Museum,” Maxwell said.

Despite her mom not being a big fan of tattoos, she said that Maxwell didn’t need her permission. Her dad, on the other hand, just “shook his head unhappily and shrugged it off.”

Amanda Wendland, senior, is another student who recently received a tattoo.

“It’s scripture on my left upper ribcage. The verse is one that’s really spoken to me for about the past year now. It’s a good reminder of who I aspire to be and the qualities I want to see in myself as a person,” Wendland said.

The pain was a little worse for Wendland because the ribcage is one of the most painful places to receive a tattoo since the bones are closer to the skin.

“The pain was really bad over my ribs, but it was nothing worse than what I expected,” Wendland said.

As for Micky Foos, her wrist tattoo “just stung a little.” The EKG line represents the four open-heart surgeries she had when she was born.

“[My parents] were excited I got a tattoo that meant something, but also thought I should’ve gotten a smaller one,” Foos said.

Although there is a bit of a stigma regarding getting a tattoo at such a young age, or at all for that matter, as popularity grows, more and more high school students may find themselves opting to participate in this form of self-expression.