Kentucky mom Amanda Morris was frustrated on her important but rather unusual mission: getting her 16-year-old daughter Alexis, a tattoo. Well, two tattoos actually. Sound crazy? It might be if it weren’t for a very good reason. Alexis, who has severe dyslexia, has trouble telling her right from her left. At age sixteen and now learning to drive, she needed a very permanent and easily accessible reminder of which direction was which. Since she often wrote and “L” and “R” on the appropriate hand to help her out, her mom came up with the idea of simply getting the letters tattooed on Alexis’ hands.
Morris was hoping the cost of getting two small letters tattooed wouldn’t be too high, but she told TODAY that everywhere she called, the prices exceeded her budget.
“I had called around to so many different shops and they all said it would be between $100 and $150, which I thought was ridiculous,” Morris says.
Determined to get that permanent solution for her daughter before she got behind the wheel, Morris continued hunting for the right tattoo shop to meet their needs. Then she found Ambitious Ink, owned by Scotty Thompson in Frankfurt, Kentucky. Morris sent him a simple message, saying, “My daughter is 16 and has severe dyslexia and can’t tell her left from her right, so she’s wanting just a small L on left hand and a small R on her right,” I’m being quoted $100 – $150 every where I call. How much would you do this for?”
The determined mother said she was completely shocked by Thompson’s answer: “How bout free?”
Though Morris insisted she would be more than willing to pay a fair rate for his time and skill, Thompson wouldn’t accept. And so, with parental permission, 16-year-old Alexis was able to visit Ambitious Ink and get a beautiful “L” and “R” tattooed on her hands.
Thompson told TODAY that it rubbed him the wrong way that other shops gave Morris such high pricing.
“I take pride in being the everyday man’s tattoo artist,” he said. “I grew up not having 200 extra dollars to spend on a tattoo, so when I saw her mother say she just got her permit and had trouble telling difference … I knew I was going to just give it to her.”