I got my tattoo in Australia just a few days before Daf and I moved back to the states; it's of the Southern Cross - a constellation you can only see in the southern hemisphere, and it's also on the Australian flag. Living in Oz was so life changing and the tat was a way of branding the experience on my body. 
And while I was prepared for a little discomfort, I was amazed to find that it actually hurt like hell. So much so that even though my intention was to have something that really popped, I wound up wimping out, leaving the shop with just an outline of the stars. (more of the back-story's in this old post). (that's the "before picture" on the right -->)
And while I never regretted getting the tat, I was also never entirely happy with the (un)finished product, because it felt like something I'd only sort-of committed to. Every now and then I'd think about getting it fixed up, but I knew I'd never pick a random tattoo shop and go in ... and it wasn't something I was inclined to do alone ... and it hurt ... and I didn't really need to fix it and, and, and ... so the clock kept ticking, and I'd do nothing about it.
Fast forward 11 years (god, it's been that long?), to 
last week when a 27 year old colleague at work started talking about getting her 3rd tat. Hearing her talk about it, I made the decision that (as elvis would sing) it's now or never: if the tat is there, it ought to really BE there ... none of this half-assed tattoo for me ... Southern Cross or bust ... pain be damned.
So we scheduled an appointment at a place where she'd gotten tat #2, and off we went last Friday to the Tattoo Garage.
My colleague took pictures (cool the way she used the mirror, huh?) (my glamour shot ...), and she was entirely prepared to bust my chops unmercifully if I started to wimp out (as i'd asked her to). But amazingly, this was nothing like my Aussie tat experience. When I mentioned the pain and my originally wimpiness to Chris, the tat artist, he said: Well ... they must've have used their forearms, I just let the needle do the work. I had no frikkin idea what he was talking about, but I wasn't about to question the lack of pain.
If getting the tat was originally symbolic of my Aussie experience, maybe the additional layers in the new finished product can be about letting what is there actually BE there. Living in Australia gave me my first real view of what might be possible if I'd just loosen the constraints I'd placed on my life, and it never hurts to have a reminder that it's often the things that I do (or don't do) that wind up holding me back.
And hey, if nothing else, I have a tat that actually looks like one now. (hard to tell from the "after" photo, but it's got 3 different layers of color now ... fab)
You're a braver woman than me... ;)
Posted by: Marilyn | February 18, 2008 at 10:30 AM