Tattoos

Day 3 of 30-day writing challenge: What tattoos you have and if they have meaning.

So, today I’m supposed to be discussing my tattoos. Hmmm. Interesting thing about me and tattoos, I never spell it right. I always leave off that extra “t” (the third one or the second one, I don’t know which).

I only have one tattoo which is kind of unusual for someone of my generation. Most of us are inked over half our bodies. Though I do have plans for two more in the near future, so maybe I’ll be accepted into Gen X once more when I get those done.

So, my one little tattoo is of a dolphin on my upper leg.

I guess it has some meaning. Most people don’t go into a tattoo shop with their eyes shut and point at a design and have it permanently inked onto their skin, do they? Maybe they do, idk, but not this gal.

Anyhow, I like dolphins. I’ve always kind of had a thing for them. I grew up pretty land-locked and didn’t get out to the ocean too much, so there weren’t a whole lot of dolphin sightings in my life until I was in my twenties and my folks moved to an island off the coast of Georgia. Most of the dolphins I saw until then were in the occasional side-show where they did flips and tricks for treats.

OMG, I am totally going off on a super-boring dolphin tangent, so…yeah…I like ‘em and stuff. Also, I had this super-intellectual-type-boyfriend in college who was older than me by a few years and who once told me oh-so-wisely: “Young one, if thine elects to have ink injected into thine skin, think on the design for six months or beyond, at which point if one still yearns for said design, one shalt get said design injected into thine skin.”

You know, this is probably the wisest advice I’ve ever heard about tattoos before or since. So, thank you super-intellectual-college-boyfriend. Namaste.

After my six-month period had expired, I was like: Yeah, I still super-like dolphins and I headed to the tattoo shop with my crazy aunt (no, not that crazy aunt, the other one) and my new boyfriend who I later married and…I got a dolphin tattoo. Hmmm, that story is lacking in some tension….

Kay then. So my other two tattoos that I have planned have awesome meanings. On one side of my back I’m going to have “be still” tattooed in script because it’s the title of a Killer’s song and I feel like I owe them something for all their amazing music and a few inches of my skin seems like an adequate payment. On the other side of my back, directly across from “be still” I’m going to have a cresting wave tattooed. The whole thing will act as a sort of yin/yang. Be still/wave crest. Stillness/Movement. Boo-yow!

And that's all I really have to say about tattoos.