Holy moly heck have things been shaking around here. For starters, at the frail old age of almost-46, I got my first tattoo!
Not the kind you put forethought into, and plan ahead for. No, that would be just too responsible, too grown-up like, to "conventional".
Instead, I went to a huge tattoo convention with no intent whatsoever of getting a tatoo. It was more to help XXXX find a good artist for HIS mid-life-crisis tattoo. Besides,anyone with the sense of a GOAT knows never to get a tattoo at a CONVENTION, in the BANQUET ROOM of a CASINO!
I have never had any intent of putting a tattoo on THIS old body! But as the old saying goes, "never say never".
Now those of you who know me best, know I rarely color within the lines and have always found a different way to do things than most. But I also take my time in making major life changing decisions....especially true over the past decade.
In my defense, I didn't get a 'generic' tattoo. I got the one "in my head". There were tattoo artists from Canada, Los Angeles, San Diego, Florida, New York, Alaska, etc. There was one guy, Dan Hartman whose work stood out way above all the rest.
I told him what kind of tattoo I would want, IF on the rare occasion (like when Jupiter was in line with the moon), I would even THINK I wanted a tattoo. Before I knew it, my new friend Dave, had sketched up almost exactly what I had in my head (a Native American arrow head, with feathers on each side). I think Dave knew he had me at that point.
Fifteen minutes, and two shots of tequila later, I found myself leaning over his table exposing my lower back to this guy I met just 30 minutes earlier. If someone had told me how much a tattoo on the lower back hurt, I would have left with my brain (and skin) still intact. A co-worker asked me later if I had missed that part of Anatomy and Physiology in nursing school (obviously I had-"so we really DO have all kinds of nerves running off the spine, huh?")
But there really are times in life when you just jump off that cliff, 'live life on the edge", "go with your gut" or just plain do something impulsive and spontaneous, and the end results are exactly what you needed and wanted.
I love this tattoo! It is a black and grey tat and is exactly what I had pictured in my minds eye.
My little sister Julie (who thinks she knows everything, obviously), said that this lower back tattoo will very soon be sagging to the level of the crack of my butt....and she is probably right.....my daughter Brooke will just get a good laugh when she comes to visit me in the nursing home.
She and my son CJ have already promised me pizza with pineapples and pinto beans and cornbread. We will have long conversations about totally irrelevant things that I won't recall 20 minutes later.
I will wear long white nightgowns and have my very long grey hair hanging down my back, I'll spit in the street in public, and I'll have an arrowhead with Indian feathers in the crack of my butt.
