Your Tattoos Part II

So, here we are with my final installment of reader submissions. This will end my tattoo testimony. Special thanks to all who have submitted and participated via responses. Here is your final cast of characters.

Introducing…

Kami – I’m married to her.

Colin – My business partner for 5 years and member of our community

Ryan – Friend I met at Red Robin 7 years ago

Rainbow – friend and roomate (that’s a long story and deserves its own post)

Hilary – my old boss from red Robin…and she’s married to Ryan

Stephanie – Friend from church

Kami

Location: Inside Right arm

Shop Location: Maui Hawaii

How long it took: 10-15 minutes

I was in Hawaii with Ben and our friends Colin & Grace. At the beginning of our trip we decided we should all get a tattoo together. I know…funny. Actually really funny because I’m my mother’s daughter. I was Kami Ann the good little pastor’s daughter. I never did anything in the least bit rebellious. I did everything my mother asked of me. I was a dream child, huh Mom? At least until I married Ben. After that a whole new world was open to me. A world of tattoos. I had an idea in mind that Ben and I thought of together. Okay, it was more him then me, but I liked it. We had just finished a course on Sonship (learning about what itmeans to be a son/daughter of God). We had a study book that we were going through. And on the front of the book was a cross on top of a heart. I learned and I think was changed some by that course so I thought that would be cool to remember plus I liked how simple and bold the design was. And what the cross coming out of the heart meant for me. The only reason there is any meaning in the cross is because of God’s love. Does that make sense? Well, hopefully, it made/makes sense to me. When I got home my mother flipped. I forget exactly what she said but something to the degree that she can’t believe I would do such a thing. Don’t I know that this is permanent? Yes, Mom. I know. We’re good now though. But I don’t know if she knows I want more. I want more Mom, okay? Just warning ya. I am pretty proud that I’m the first person in my family to get a tattoo. But I might also be the last until my kids decide to get inked.

I still like the tattoo. I like what it still means to me and the boldness of it. I’m a little embarrassed by how cliche a heart and cross is but that’s only if I care what other people think-which is all the time so hmmmm. 

Regretability Scale Ratiing from 1-10:  1.5

Colin

Hebrew text, “Love the LORD”; “Love your Neighbor”

Location on Body: inner arms

How Long it took: 1 hr?     

I’ve been a fan of tattoos since my punk rock days in High School, but I’m definitely more slow to act than Ben. So I didn’t come up with my first tattoo design until my senior year of College. It took a while longer before I got the tattoos, because it was hard getting a printed out version of the Hebrew text, since I don’t read Hebrew (I even went to a Jewish Synagogue, and when they found out why I wanted a print out of these phrases, they were uncooperative). Fortunately, a Bible Professor from my college helped me out.

These tattoos are really important to me, because they symbolize what I wanted my life to be about, and where I stood in my relationship with my Father at the time.  I went to a very legalistic “Christian” high school, where everything that I was trained, in terms of a relationship with my Father, was about the LAW: following rules, and boxes on a checklist.  And obedience was out of fear and obligation, rather than LOVE and JOY pouring out of a relationship with Him.  In college, being a few years removed from my high school training, I had really been floored by Jesus’ summation of the law in 2 commands: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  This simplified Law, based on Love, really transformed my life.  It was the transition from viewing my Father as a harsh disciplinarian, waiting for me to fail (who I didn’t want to love or obey), to viewing my Father as a loving, Father and friend who wants to be in relationship with me, offering the Law as a way to protect me from harm and keeping me on track (who I want to obey and love).

Because I still want my life to be characterized by love for the Lord and love for others, and because I’m really happy with how they turned out:

Regretability scale: 0 out of 10

Sun, Cross, Bird

Location on Body: Right Calf

Shop Location: Maui, Hawaii

How Long it took: 45 min?

Grace had been sketching ideas for at least a year, none of which I really liked. She wanted a tattoo that had a deeper symbolism than either of her high school tattoos. So, while in Hawaii, she suggested we all get tattoos (which I also thought was pretty cheesy). But I DID like the idea of getting another tattoo, especially if it was meaningful to Grace (and me).  So during the week, we kind of worked on the design a little bit, and by the end, I was pretty cool with it. I wanted a colorful tattoo this time, since my only other tattoos are black ink.  We settled on the cross, bird, sun design, because it was colorful, aesthetically pleasing (to both of us), and symbolized our Lord as Creator (Sun), Saviour (Cross) and Sustainer (Holy Spirit as the Dove). It’s still a really great memory in my mind, and a cool thing to have his and hers matching tattoos.

I’m relatively pleased with how it ended up. I wish we would have picked a better Dove design. Also, I think it’s a tad on the feminine side, and wish I could have made the design for mine a little more gender neutral or masculine.  Fortunately for me, I’m so masculine that the tattoo actually helps keep me well balanced. But for those reasons, I give it a

Regretability Scale: 2 out of 10

Ryan

I got my tattoo whyn I was 18 years old.  A lot of my friends were getting tattoos when we where 15 and 16, but I knew my parents would kill me if I got a tattoo before I was 18.  I thought tattoos where cool but I never really considered getting one.  One day not too long after I turned 18 my friend and I were sitting around bored one day and talking about tattoos.  My friend decided that he wanted to go get another tattoo so I told him I would go with him and get one also.  It was a very spur of the moment decision.  The only real reason I got a tattoo was becuase I thought it would look cool.  My tattoo has no real personal meaning, although when I got it I came up with some bullshit reason to explain to other people why I got it.  I would tell others that I got a bull becuase I am a Tuarus and I had a bullish personality, but the real reason is that I thought a tough looking animal was better than some barbed wire or stupid tribal art.  Long story short, I was a stupid 18 year old kid who did not think about my decisions and who was trying to fit in with his friends and be different at the same time.

What do I think of my tattoo now, I still like it.  I have had my tattoo for 11 years now and I still like it as much as the day I got it.  I don’t see myself getting another tattoo, but even if I could go back in time and stop myself from getting this one, I would not.

On a regretability scale of 1-10, with 10 being me wanting to scrape the thing off with sand paper,

Regetability Scale: 1 out of 10

  I do not, nor have I ever, regretted getting the tattoo. I still think it looks cool!

Rainbow

1) I got this tattoo because I thought it was the christian thing to do. I was into publicly displaying my Christianity in extra annoying ways (like wearing the aforementioned christian t-shirts and more bumper stickers than paint on my car). I’m sure I had always wanted tattoos, and got this one on my 18th birthday… just to get a tattoo. Sure, I had drawn this symbol in that spot every day for like a year, but that doesn’t mean it meant a lot to me… it just means I wanted a tattoo.

2) Well, the lines coming out of the top of the cross are supposed to make it “shiny” (I prefer to call it glorious) but have been asked lots of times, “Why is it surprised?” or just plain “What are the lines for?” I guess I didn’t ask a lot of people what they thought of it beforehand, or I might have skipped the lines. Also, most people assume it has to do with some certain denomination or cult, which is sorta embarrassing. After thinking about how hideous crosses are (historically, not ascetically, but that too) I wish I would have gone for just a plain fish (of which I would still be embarrassed, but less so). 

3) I sort of already answered how much I regret having gotten this tattoo, but no more than I regret anything I did in high school. I think it’s funny that I decided at that time that I knew I would always love it because I loved it then, but that’s kinda how high-schoolers think… I think I like that about them…

Regretability Scale: 7 out of 10

I got this tattoo while I was in college, I was 20 so it’s 11 years old.  Not really sure why I picked this particular tattoo, I love flowers though and any kind of daisy is my favorite.  The butterfly was an add on and the flowers where actually in a straight line in the art that I saw.  I wanted them to curve down though and the butterfly off to one side.  It took about an hour and was more annoying than painful.  What was more painful however was the fact that there was a TV I could watch…they had it on the History channel though.  So boring!  For some reason one of my ex high school boyfriends sent me $100.00, he was a nice guy and we were still friends at the time (even though I was dating someone else).  This is what that money went towards.  Maybe he sent it so I could get the tattoo as I was a starving college student, too long ago to remember the details, I just know I didn’t pay for it!

Regretability Scale: 0 out of 10

This tattoo is 8 years old.  I got it one summer with a friend that came out to Seattle to visit me after I moved here, I think it was my second summer here.  We both have the same tattoo in the same spot and it means “friendship” (as far as we know, haha!).  She and I are still friends and have been since we were 19 years old.  We met in college our Freshman year.  She actually lives here now, our husbands work together, and our first born kids are 5-1/2 months apart, second born kids will be 2-1/2 months apart.  So for me, the tattoo still holds true.  Didn’t really pick the pansy flower to be underneath, it was all set up in one design already.  This tattoo was WAY more painful than the first one I got on my back.  This skin in this area must be more sensitive…I passed out briefly during it and thought I was going to vomit!!  We hadn’t planned to get tattoos while she was here, we had just been at a comedy club with 2 other girls that had scheduled appointments afterwards for their tattoos.  After a quick run to the ATM, we took the plunge too.  

I got it 14 years ago when I was 19. I was a freshman in college and I
had always said I’d never get a tattoo because they were trendy and
stupid. Then one day in economics class I thought “This is so boring.
I’m going to get a tattoo today.” So then I had to decide what my
tattoo should be of, and where. I had a Pink Floyd song in my head so
I decided to get a Dark Side of the Moon tattoo because it was simple
and kind of iconic and it’s a good album and music is basically the
reason I live.  I got it on the back of my calf because everyone else
was getting them on their ankles or small of their backs or on their
hip and I didn’t know anyone else getting one on their calf.  

I still like it.

Rating on the Regretability Scale: 1 out of 10