Opinion articles provide independent perspectives on key community issues, separate from our newsroom reporting.

Letters to the Editor

At 85, no tattoos

I’ll be celebrating my 85th birthday soon so my perspective is clearly different from letter writer Samantha Haber's response to Peter Orszag’s Oct. 11 Other Views article, A tattoo speaks volumes about the U.S. economy.

However, I would like to offer an old man's thoughts on the subject of tattoos. I've looked back at the things I did and some of them were pretty stupid.

The one thing that I didn't do was memorialize any of them by permanently engraving them on my skin. As a result I can think back to events and say, “Wow! That was really dumb,” and I'm the only one with that ability.

I owe a debt of thanks to the earlier me for that. He wasn't quite as silly as I sometimes think he was.

Arnold Slotkin, Miami

This story was originally published October 30, 2014 at 6:57 PM with the headline "At 85, no tattoos."

Get unlimited digital access
#ReadLocal

Try 1 month for $1

CLAIM OFFER