The year? 2001. The style? Terrible. The vibe? Unbelievably fun. I was a twenty-year-old in the early 2000s. I look back at some of the photos of myself and boy, were the outfits terrible, but somehow we walked around with so much confidence? I remember walking around with extremely low-cut bell-bottom jeans, halter tops, pink extensions in my hair and sparkly blue and silver glitter powder smudged all across my eyelids. My lipstick was glossy and I loved having a nice ring. My boyfriend wasn’t any better. He’d walk around in a button-up Hawaiian shirt, three quarter length army shorts and a choker. His hair was laughable. He had short and spiky bleach-blond frosted tips as if he was about to be prancing around as a backing dancer for a boy band. Then he paid a visit to a tribal tattooist in the Brisbane CBD and got himself a tribal armband. Does anyone else remember those tattoos? For some reason, men in their 20s and 30s during the 2000s thought it was a good look.
I remember we would also go to nightclubs on the weekend and he would wear fluro sneakers while I would wear shiny heels and together we would dance well into the early hours of the morning. I remember after one night out I decided it was a smart idea to get a butterfly tattoo on my back. As I said, it was the 2000s so nearly every girl had one. I booked a consultation with a highly recommended tattoo artist. Brisbane in the 2000s was filled with tattoo shops, so it wasn’t hard to find a place. I found a really great tattoo shop and they created a really lovely pink and blue butterfly design. I still have the tattoo and it looks as good as when I first got it. I don’t think I’ll ever cover it up. Sure, it’s a very dated image but hey, it’s a symbol of some of my most fun and favourite years.