Serge Pensik, orchestra director
Tattoo(s): skeleton playing a guitar
Location: right arm

Passions, interests, and personalities can be permanently showcased through the artwork they put on their bodies. Serge Pensik, orchestra director, chose to get a tattoo to showcase his passion for music.
“I was in a lot of metal bands and rock bands growing up, so [the tattoo] symbolizes a lot of what I did when I was younger,” Pensik said. This tattoo, however, was not a tattoo planned to get. The idea for the tattoo was the product of chance.
“I went with a friend of mine to get a tattoo. I was looking through the catalogs and I saw it in there and I really liked the design,” Pensik said. “I think the important thing to do before getting a tattoo is to ask yourself a question: what is this going to mean to you in 20 years?” After contemplating the decision for a year, Pensik got the tattoo, and years later, still does not regret his decision.
“[The tattoo] symbolizes a period of my life that I enjoy thinking about. It was a lot of fun,” Pensik said.

Randal Dunbar. P.E. teacher,
Tattoo(s): Ironman symbol, Location: right ankle

In some cases, tattoos are accepted as a trend. Many individuals will permanently put illustrations and script onto their skin to serve as a reminder of others, causes, and past experiences.
Randal Dunbar, P.E. teacher, used his ink to commemorate an experience that he’s very proud of.
“I got [the tattoo] after I completed the Ironman marathon in Louisville in 2013,” Dunbar said. “It was such a big goal and such a big accomplishment to complete a 140.6 mile marathon in a day. People are so overjoyed when they finish, they want to remember that. And I kind of fed into that trend.”
The Ironman Triathlon is an extensive marathon that covers 140.6 miles of land and water. After successfully completing the triathlon, many participants get tattoos the Iron Man symbol as a permanent reminder of their hard work and dedication through the entire process of not only completing the marathon, but also the training process they had to go through first. Dunbar chose to go with the tradition while he was training, Dunbar said.

Amanda Rodriguez, P.E. teacher
Tattoo(s): Snowflake, flower
Location: back, left shoulder

Tattoos are commonly used to commemorate important people or events in one’s life. Amanda Rodriguez, P.E teacher, got two of her of her five tattoos in remembrance of her mother.
One of which, her mother’s name contained inside of a snowflake, ties together her mother’s identity and her father’s nickname for her.
Rodriguez also has a tattoo of a pancreatic cancer ribbon, which commemorates her mother’s battle against a disease that affects many people per year.
“[Her fight against cancer] made me appreciate life more. I knew pancreatic cancer had a high rate of mortality and I knew that once it gets discovered, it can get bad really quick, so every day from then on I spent with my mom,” Rodriguez said. “She lived with it for about eight months, so I spent as much time with her as possible, and it makes me appreciate people who are still around me. My dad and I are really close and I just try to keep family as close as possible.”