My tats

Someone asked to see my tats, so here they are.

This was my first:

It's on the outside of my right thigh and it's part of a larger painting done by Sarah McLachlan (which I can't find a picture of online). It's a medusa with wings. I was 19 and this was going to be my one and only tat. Mm-hmm. Riiiiiiiiight.

This armband was my gift to myself when I graduated college:

(Three shots so you can see the sides of it.)

When I came home with it, my dad wanted to know why I'd joined a gang. Good times, good times.

Ben and I have this same tattoo, done about a year after we were married:
Mine is on my right wrist, his on his left. When we hold hands they touch and we sometimes pretend we're activating secret Wonder Twin-like powers, because we're just that shmoopy and dorky.

And then there's this wee little thing on my neck:



(The pic on the bottom is the correct view, the one on the top is a mirror image.) It's the kanji for "moon". It's my only impulse tattoo and it's my least favorite. I'll probably have it made into a larger piece someday. I'd originally gone in to get the kanji for "tears" elsewhere on my body because someone I loved very much had just died and I was in a dark, dark place I was sure I would never crawl out of. My friend wouldn't let me, saying it was just generally a bad idea to tattoo your grief permanently into your skin but I was in a mood and determined to get ink that day, so I got this instead. I'm glad my friend stopped me from getting "tears" -- that also wasn't the right thing for me to do at the time. I wish she'd been able to just convince me to walk out altogether, because this one little kanji on my neck is very bare and simple. Like I said, I'll probably have it made into something bigger someday.