‘It was time to start living again’: US grandmother, 103, gets green frog tattooed on her arm to celebrate release from coronavirus lockdown in a nursing home
- Dorothy Pollack, from Michigan, was confined to a nursing home for months
- She said ‘After being in covid-19 prison, I thought it was time to start living again’
- Surprising her friends and family, she announced she wanted a tattoo of a frog
- The artist said at 103-years-old, she was the oldest person he had ever tattooed
A 103-year-old Grandmother got her first tattoo to celebrate her escape from a nursing home after spending months isolated due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Dorothy Pollack, 103, (pictured) decided to celebrate her discharge from a nursing home with a tattoo, an item on her bucket list
Dorothy Pollack, from Michigan, celebrated her birthday on June 16 in a home in Muskego, and surprised her friends and family when she announced her wish to get a tattoo once she was finally discharged.
Ms Pollack, a former bartender and chemists assistant who retired in her mid-90s, went the Awol Custom Tattooing parlor in Michigan to get an image of a frog tattooed on her arm, according to CNN.
Teresa Jones, her grandson’s girlfriend, said that she had been unhappy living in the nursing home and had been confined to her room during the worst of the pandemic.
‘When we couldn’t take her out to her favourite bar to get a hamburger and a beer on her birthday because of Covid we decided to bring her home with us,’ Jones said.
‘She’d pretty much been locked up in her room [because of the pandemic] and was feeling down.’
‘The nurse in the home said she was horribly depressed and we needed to get her out,’ she added. ‘We couldn’t see her so we had no idea how she really was. She’s extremely hard of hearing so phone calls were not helpful.’
Ms Pollack said that the tattoo was partly a way to celebrate her new-found freedom.
‘After being in covid-19 prison, I thought it was time to start living again,’ Pollack said to The Washington Post. ‘I decided that a good way to celebrate was to get a tattoo.’
Teresa Jones, her grandson’s girlfriend, said that Pollack had been unhappy living in the nursing home during the coronavirus lockdown, and wanted to celebrate. She got the tattoo on her left forearm by tattoo artist Ray Reasoner Jr. (right)
She got the tattoo on her left forearm by tattoo artist Ray Reasoner Jr., ignoring any concerns she may have over regretting the decision when she was older.
‘It was pretty exciting because years ago my grandson wanted me to get [a tattoo] and I wouldn’t do it,’ Pollack told CNN. ‘All of a sudden, I decided I would like to have one. And if I could, a frog… Because I like frogs,’ she added.
Reasoner Jr said: ‘She took it like a champ. I didn’t even see her wince. Maybe she had half a wince once. She was just so excited. It was an amazing experience. If someone over a century old tells you to do something for them you just gotta do it.’
He added that she was the oldest person he has ever tattooed.
The tattoo artist said the session took a bit longer than usual as he wanted to be careful of Ms Pollack’s skin, and said she gave him the most heartfelt thanks he had ever received afterwards
The tattoo artist said he received the most heartfelt thank you he had even been given after the 90-minute session, taking slightly longer than usual out of concern for the 103-year-old.
Mr Reasoner said that he was told the tattoo was also an item on Ms Pollack’s bucket list that she wished to fulfill, as was wanting to ride a motorbike for the first time, so he called his father – Ray Reasoner Sr – who happened to own a Harley-Davidson.
To tick another item off her list, Reasoner Sr took her off on the motorbike and out for lunch.
Jones, almost afraid of the answer, asked Pollack what her next adventure would be, said the Washington Post. ‘Sooner than later,’ she told Jones, ‘I’d like to go skydiving.’