Thread by @LilSallyScoop

This barcode tattoo on two strangers who are adopted - it’s had my brain spinning about since I saw it. They say it’s a family joke, and that it’s funny. But they don’t see that they’re the punchline. And it’s not funny at all. 1/

This tattoo thread, and the doubling down of how happy everyone is has bothered me so much because I was once the punchline of a long running family joke. It started when I was about their age, 20 or 21. I thought it was hilarious, and even played along. 2/

Until one day, a dozen years later, I saw it for what it was. And that I was the punchline the whole time. And that while my (adoptive) parents and extended family laughed along, they were really laughing at me. 3/

It’s easy to skim along the surface for cheap laughs. That’s what this barcode tattoo is. One day these adopted siblings will understand that they’re the punchline of their own family joke and see it for what it is. And that it’s memorialized in a tattoo. 4/ #adopteevoices

Maybe one day I’ll share the story of this long running family joke, and how cruel it truly was for me, an adoptee - even more when you remember I didn’t know I was adopted until a few years ago. But not tonight. It has to be told correctly, and I don’t have that in me tonight.

The mother, the person who was so proud of what her children had done by getting this tattoo, has locked down her account. It’s her right to do so, but it certainly speaks opposite to her responses and actions yesterday.