Dyslexic teen gets ‘left’ and ‘right’ hand tattoos so she can learn how to drive

By Tim Sigsworth via SWNS

A dyslexic teenager got "left" and "right" hand tattoos so she could learn how to drive.

Amanda Morris, 36, was quoted between $100 and $150 (£80 - £120) when she called tattoo parlors asking if her daughter, Alexis, 16, could get ‘L’ and ‘R’ tattooed on her hands.

Alexis - who has dyslexia - has never been able to tell left from right and was finding it impossible to learn to drive.

Amanda - who is also mom to Noah, 18, Harley, 14, Danny, 11, and Riley, nine - came across the Facebook page for Ambitious Ink, in Frankfort, Ky., and messaged owner Scotty Jr. Thompson, asking for a quote.

Scotty, 30, said he would do the job for free - and completed the inking on April 9, 2023.

Stay-at-home mom Amanda, from Georgetown, Ky., said: “I think Alexis was in fourth grade [year three] when she came home, and she had drawn it on her hand.

“She said when she got old enough, she wanted to get it tattooed.

“You have to be 16 and a couple of months after her birthday we called around several tattoo parlors, but I just couldn’t bring myself to pay $150 or $200 just for two letters.

“I was totally OK with it, I thought it was a great idea and I’ve got several tattoos myself.

“I came across Scotty’s page on Facebook and messaged to ask him how much he would charge and he said 'how bout free.'

“I’m like ‘wow, OK’ so he messaged me to ask if we could do it on Easter Sunday.

“So, we met him at Easter, and he was incredible.

"We were in and out of there in less than 20 minutes probably.

“He reassured Alexis all the way through.”

Scotty - who has been a tattoo artist for 15 years - said: “What sparked my attention was that all the other tattoo shops were trying to charge her between $100 and $150.

"It was a tattoo that literally took me longer to set my equipment up to do it than to do the tattoo.

“I felt like people were taking advantage of this lady and her daughter and it had me thinking: 'Man, there’s no way that I’d pay that for a five-minute tattoo.'

“It was the first time I had ever done an L and an R.

“I was a little bit confused because I didn’t know a whole lot about dyslexia before.

“But I let Alexis pick any L and R she wanted so it would make sense to her when she sees it.

“You can get some unusual requests for stupid stuff you know people are going to regret like couples’ names and they know they’re going to regret it.

“I have given people free tattoos before, covering up self-harm scars and old, bad tattoos that they had 20 to 30 years ago.

"God will tell me to take care of somebody like I did.

“But I had no idea I was going to get the traction it got. I’ve never had anything like that happen before. “

Alexis has not passed her driving test yet and plans to book a date for it by the end of April.

Amanda added: “She finds it really useful now.

"She’s not talked about getting anymore, she really just needed the left and right because she literally can’t tell her left from her right.

“If you say ‘turn left’ she just stares straight and says ‘you need to point, I don’t know where to go’.

“Now she has it on her hand she can just look.

“It has helped her confidence a lot, and she’s getting better at driving all the time.

“She feels much safer on the road not only for herself but for everyone around her too.

“It affects everyday little things in her life as well. It affects her reading quite a bit.

“We home-schooled her this year because the school system here doesn’t recognize it as a learning disability, so there’s no extra help at school.”