Last week Mom celebrated the fourth of July by boating with friends on Clearwater Lake near Annandale, MN.

Every year, a local marine and boat outfitter, shells out money to hire a floating band (music ensemble atop a pontoon).  From 2pm to 8 pm the band plays, whilst hundreds of boats drop anchor, creating a floating city of scantily clad men and woman.

Many of these naked folks are heavily tattooed.

Mom noticed this year an abundance of people tattooed with various names.  She asked some of the people what the name signified, and all of them said “It’s my name.”

Really?

Like are you going to forget your name?

All of these folks were obviously under thirty, and Mom started thinking about the evolution of tattoos and names.  Years ago, hard core bikers showed their soft side by tattooing “Mom” on a large bicep.  Later, people sure their love wouldn’t fade, i.e. Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock, had the names of their loved ones scraped into their skins.  Eventually, people decided the name of their child would be an even better choice.  I mean, it’s not like your going to start to hate your kids ever, are you?

But, your own name?!

Perhaps Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, blogging have humans so consumed with telling people about themselves, that they have elevated their importance  to the point of indelibly printing their names, date of birth, and social security number on their skins.

Have today’s humans become the modern Narcissus?

Narcissus was a youth that knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the Narcissus.

But this is not how the author of the story ended it…

The author goes on to say that when Narcissus dies, the goddess of the forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.

“Why do you weep?” the goddess asked.

“I weep for Narcissus,” the lake replied.

“Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus,” they said, “for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand.”

“But… was Narcissus beautiful?” the lake asked.

“Who better than you to know that?” the goddesses said in wonder. “After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!”

The lake was silent for some time. Finally it said:

“I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.”

Well, party people, I think if you’re going to end up tattooing any name on your body it should obviously belong to your pet.

You know you want to.  Hell, even the celebrities are doing it.  Here’s Jennifer Aniston with her new tattoo.  It’s a small picture but she inked the name “Norman” on the top of her foot.  Norman was her corgi mix that died recently.

Hell’s yeah!

Power, and ink, to the pets!