Analysis Of First Crush

As a somewhat alternative college student with a few tattoos throughout my body, as well as plans to get several more, I really enjoyed this short memoir piece. The first lines reads, “In my early twenties, I had a habit of getting a tattoo after breakup.” As a person who enjoys getting tattoos, I identified with this. I have this same urge to get tattoos whenever something negative happens in my life, but my lack of funds makes it impossible for me to do so. So I could only imagine if I was capable of getting tattoos like this every time I felt the urge to do so, and this is the imaginary situation that was presented in this story. The author turns her body into a roadmap of her failed relationships when she gathers tattoos throughout college, and these tattoos have no meaning to her. She openly admits to being guilty of impulsive, youthful mistakes in addition to cultural appropriation as she abruptly chooses tattoo after tattoo based on how they look and nothing

These stories are part of a anthology called Crush which aims for focus on first crushes, but that is the opposite of what this piece does. This story begins at the end of a relationship in college, long past a first crush or even first relationship. There is actually very little “crushing” that occur in this piece. A crush is the exhilarating beginning to a potential relationship, but this essay focuses on the bitter endings of misguided relationships. I feel that this was an insightful look into a young adulthood that is riddle with mistakes, just as most are; however, it simply didn’t fit the theme of the anthology. The main connection that I can find is the idea of learning lessons from ones own love life, but that still doesn’t quite seem to fit with the theme. So perhaps it was the essence of the story that allowed it to be a part of this collection, rather than the actual