Magazine Article

Taken from: Seventeen – April

2007

The article is about a girl who decided to get a tattoo. And she hid it from her mom.But the guy who had done the tattoo wasn’t that trustful person... And everything went wrong and she got serious problems with it...

New expressions:inch: a unit used for measuring length, which is approximately equal to 2.54 centimetres, sometimes shown by the symbol “

*”The tattoo gun was about nine inches long.”

buzz: to make a continuous low sound such as the one a bee makes.

*”... It made a buzzing sound as he moved the needle on my foot.”

shady: dishonest or illegal * “I’ll admit that I knew it was all kind of

shady, since he wasn’t licensed...”

mess up: to make / do something wrong or hit someone repeatedly so that they are badly injured.

* “He said: ‘Sorry, I messed up’”

- glance: to give a quick short look .* “I glanced down and saw that...”

- crooked: not forming a straight line; having many sharp bends .

*”... Saw that the edges of the tattoo were crooked.”

- razor blade: a thin flat piece of metal with a sharp edge for cutting that can be used in a razor.

* “It felt like a razor blade cutting my skin over and over.”

- hand: to give something to someone.*”She handed me a bottle of vodka.”

throb: If a part of your body throbs, you feel pain in it in a series of regular beats.

*”My left foot was throbbing.”

chicken out: to decide not to do something because you are too frightened.

* “I was mad at Ariel for chickening out of getting his tattoo.”

swell up: to become larger and rounder than usual; to (cause to) increase in size or amount

* “My foot swelled up.”

barefoot: not wearing any shoes or socks*”I walked barefoot into the bathroom...”

-go ballistic: to become extremely angry.*”When I got home, my mum saw my foot and

went ballistic.”

seep out: to move or spread slowly out of a hole or through something.

* “A gross yellowish liquid kept seeping out of it…”

lift up: to take hold of and raise in order to remove, carry or move to a different position.

* ”I lifted up half of the tattoo.”

excruciating: extremely painful/ uncomfortable.

* “My foot was excruciating.”

- Discuss these questions with a partner / group

c) Do you have any tattoos / piercing?d) Do you know anybody who has got them?e) Have you ever considered getting one?

Why(not)?f) What do you think of them? Why?g) What are some good / bad points of having

them?h) Are your parents in favour or against

them?i) How does society react to them?j) How can tattoos affect somebody

professionally?k) Define tattoos in two words.

I hope you all have learnt something new!!

=)

The EndBy Laís Ap. Oliveira

CPE 2