Celtic.

Recently I was talking to a friend, a woman who has two children, and she told me that she was thinking of getting a tattoo. The tattoo would have her two children's names, done in a fairly stylised way and in celtic lettering (well it would be, wouldn't it? Why not helvetica? Times New Roman?). She was planning on getting this on her upper back, behind her shoulder. This, apparently, isn't unusual.

So far so good. I couldn't resist though, I had to ask "why?". As I expected, she said it was to commemorate them, to give her something on her body to remember them by. I let this go, of course, but on reflection this just sounds all wrong. Without putting too fine a point on it, she already has some reminders on her body, and, for another thing, what's the risk that at some point she'll somehow forget she has children? And if she does, she's not going to be able to see this tattoo anyway, it's behind her shoulder. The only chance is that she's walking down the street and someone says to her "that's an interesting tatt, what does it mean?", at which point she'll presumably slap her forehead, d'oh!.