Not my tattoo. Just a sample of 032 Tattoo's work.

Thinking of getting inked this summer—or anytime soon this year? This week?

Just this month, I got inked at 032 Tattoo, right in the heart of the city: Mango Avenue, Cebu City—just at the back of Alcohology (a popular bar). What I like best about 032 Tattoo is that the artists, and the owner, are very responsive and friendly.

Chow Abinales, the owner of 032 Tattoo, as well as a tattoo artist, oversees the inquiries of possible customers. He responds on the fly, at the same time giving you a price quote and asks you for the day and time you'd like to have your tattoo done.

Dearie,

You have sparked the attention of a lot of mothers out there, and I'm here to voice out my opinion as a daughter.  

Let me introduce myself. I'm a twenty-four-year-old unmarried and childless writer who grew up not really seeing my mom that much, and was raised by a hands-on dad, a doting grandma, protective sisters, and a string of yayas. I have two older sisters who are in their thirties and are apparently "fake" hands-on moms because they are not at par to your losyang standards in your oh-so wonderful article "How to spot a fake hands-on mom of toddlers." (And by the way, both of them have toddlers and one-year-olds, and they still are hands-on moms, have time to work full-time, and look as young to pass as college girls.)

I am the youngest from a brood of three, and at the time of my birth, things were financially difficult for my family, so my mom had to work her ass off to give all of us a future. I barely remember my mom in a lot of my childhood memories. Heck, she wasn't even there when I had my menarche.

I was 20 then. It was just a few months before graduation, when I would have become a full-fledged adult with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. But for the moment I was focusing on being a good student nurse.

It was our first day in our clinical duty at the emergency room. We were on the morning shift, so we had a busy start. One of my assigned patients was a young male just a few years shy of 30, with the diagnosis of meningitis.

He was just one of the many patients I tended in the whole four years of my student-nurse days. But I remember him so well, and I don’t think I will ever forget him.