Photos by West Smith

When I was 18, nothing was cooler than the sci-fi video game Mass Effect. I remember staring at the galaxy map and thinking, “I’ll never not think this is cool.”

Now I’m 31, and my bad Mass Effect tattoos are the first thing anyone notices. I wouldn’t say I regret them, but I am embarrassed anytime someone brings them up.

I called some of my hometown childhood friends who also got tattoos the moment they turned 18 to ask if they regretted them.

“Ya know, I’ve actually been thinking about that a lot lately,” Sweaty Bear told me over FaceTime. “I want to say I don’t regret any of my tattoos, but every time I look down at my arm and see this big Misfits skull, I think about how much I want to cover it up with another tattoo, so I guess that is a regret.”

Well at leas

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