When you make the decision to get a tattoo, it’s a big one. It doesn’t matter if you get it last minute or if you think about it for months. It’s a huge decision. It is an important decision. It is a lifelong decision. It is an awesome decision.
I love my tattoos. Every single curve, detail and color in them. They have become so intrinsically a part of me that they define who I am as a person. In getting my tattoos, there are several things I have learned.
The first is that life hurts. If someone tells you that getting a tattoo is like getting a massage…they are lying. It’s not that comforting. It does hurt. For some people, it’s a slight annoyance. For other people, it might be one of the most painful things they experience. But everyone who has a tattoo knows that there is a discomfort of some level associated with ink. Life works like this. There are painful moments that may seem unbearable. Unpassable. Impossible. But on the other side of that pain is something beautiful and memorable. There is a silver lining to all pain and suffering in the world. Maybe, that pain results in something small. Or maybe that pain results in the renewed vigor to achieve something.
The second is that there is always a story. Every tattoo has a story. Has a meaning. Has a memory. These are buried deep in the ink that penetrates the skin of your body. Tattoos are books for the soul. Within those marks are words and memories and moments that made an impact on your life. Sure, someone might drunkenly get a tattoo. But something about that tattoo or that night made them want to do it.
The third is that tattoos are not for everyone. This is a two-fold sentence. Not everyone wants tattoos. And not everyone needs to know what your tattoo means. Some people could never imagine themselves getting a tattoo and that’s fine. They just mark their story in a different way. On the other hand, just because you have a tattoo does not mean you have to then announce that story to the world. People write in journals all the time to catalog a memory or situation. Our bodies are our journals. That doesn’t mean everyone is allowed to open those delicate pages.
Tattoos are what you make them. This is life in a nutshell. You are given a multitude of decisions, meanings, and outcomes for any situation. Fate may hand you a deck of cards you don’t like. But you work with it. You supply meaning. You give it substance. Tattoos work the same. Without a life source of meaning, tattoos are merely drawings without reason. That seems pretty mundane.
Tattoos are a permanent reminder of who you are, where you have been, and what you will do. It is engraved on your skin for the rest of eternity. It is sunken deep into the pores of your soul only to be released when you are gone. They are your story. They are your person. They are you.
