Photo Friday: Tattoos

Well, no going back after 8 pm tonight...I will update to let you know how it goes.

I ordered myself a Serenity bracelet from Jenny's Etsy shop Bloomingtastic. I am hoping it arrives soon as I dive into my cycle tonight. I am wearing it through the cycle, alternating wrists so I remember what side to do my injections. Way prettier than a rubberband, and it's got some oomph behind it, I hope.

So, it's Photo Friday! Calliope's challenge of the week is our favorite adornments, specifically tattoos if you have them. I said I wouldn't post my IF tattoo, but it looks like I'm going to. LOL. I am not posting all my tats....it would take all day. And I apologze for all the skin. You guys are going to see even more of me this week.

If you head to last week's post you can see a number of them. The one on my lower back was a gift to myself before entering the Peace Corps. I am year of the Snake, and I left for Namibia in year of the Snake, and I thought there was something to that, thus the tattoo. The one of the back of my neck is my goddess. She was originally given to me for protection when I left. When I returned I had her made permanent. Rainbow for my LGBT side. She is my protector. On the left shoulder blade is an old one - it's 2 lions, though very hard to see. I'm having it redone and adding so I have an upper back piece of my time in Namibia. So, essentially, my back is all Peace Corps related.

On my inner left wrist, almost impossible to see, and I can't get a decent photo of it on its own, is the word "why?". It is there to remind myself not to be complacent. If we don't ask questions, challenge things, nothing changes. In our own little worlds, or in the world at large.

Onto this week's actual photos...

Here we have my tree. I got this during a dark period of my life, just before making a big change. It is in part a memoriam to my grandmother, who taught me to love nature, and in part to signify the winters of our lives. It's NOT dead, and I have the feeling that there will be leaves added on an individual basis throughout my life. And perhaps it will turn into a sleeve. Why a tree specifically? Trees are strong, but flexible. Put down roots, but throw their seeds out to the wind to travel. Grow throughout their lives. They heal, they protect, they feed. They are a fantastic symbol of all that is WOMAN.

This is my IF tattoo. It is incomplete, just like me. The words are from Paul Simon's song The Cool, Cool River (couldn't find a decent link to it, sorry) and say "Sometimes, even music cannot substitute for tears".

Music is one of the biggest things that gets me through. I can't live without it, but in the last year or so, there have been so many days where even music was just a patch, when it didn't even help. When I just had to cry. There is a line in the song, as well, that says, "I believe in the future, we shall suffer no more. Maybe not in my lifetime, but in yours for sure." He is speaking to a child. The whole song deals with the crap in life, but the hope that he has for the future....I can't let go of hope, so even though the music doesn't always get me through, there is still hope. Hope that some day I will have a child of my own to pass the future to. That's what this tattoo is for...

The notes travel up to my collarbone, and will eventually go down to my toes, joining up with my first tattoo along the way. Currently the notes reach about mid-thigh. I was going to leave it all black, but have decided to have color added, all up to my tattoo artist's liking. He has had fun with this as most of it is freehand and there is no set pattern. I tried to give you views of the whole thing, but it's hard. Some of these are from the day it was worked on, some from today. Hard to shoot it, really, and I've gained weight, so I hated some of the ones I took today. Sorry for all the skin. There's not much of me you haven't seen at this point.



































Time for a quick congratulations, one that is well-deserved. Keiko won an award for her What IF? video from Resolve!!!! Well deserved :) Congrats, woman, you deserve it!

Oh, and I have a 2nd cycle buddy. So go give some good luck to Baby Bump Bound!! That's 3 of hitting the needle trail today. Go us!

Now, stop looking at my BBS and go read another blog :-P