Tattoo? Who knew?

Yes, that's right, yours truly went and got herself inked this weekend. And no, this wasn't a spur of the moment thing. I have wanted a tattoo as far back as I can remember, at least since I was 16 years old. In fact, because my mom didn't want me to get one, we made a deal that I would wait until the year I turned 30 and she turned 50 (same year) and we would go together and get them then. That worked out fine because I never knew WHAT I wanted to get tattooed, so I figured by 30 I would have figured it out. Good thing too, because had I gone in my 20's I probably would have ended up with something stupid.

ANYWAY, 30 came and went and I still had no idea what I wanted to get, so I didn't. But this summer I knew EXACTLY what I wanted, and I've been pumping myself up for it all summer long. Finally, this weekend I decided to just go for it.

I am happy to say that I am THRILLED with my tattoo. The guy who did it did an absolutely fantastic job of capturing my vision and idea exactly how I wanted it. In fact, he made it look even better than it looked in my mind's eye. By the way, the place where I went to get my tat is a really well known tattoo place that has tattooed a bunch of celebrities, including pro-wrestler Chyna Phillips, one of the New Kids, Danny Wood and Mark Wahlberg.

Anyway, I'm so glad I went, I love my tattoo! And it didn't even hurt that badly. there were a few spots that hurt like hell, but they were over in seconds, and he was done the whole thing in about 20 minutes.

Now, what did I get? And where did I get it? Well, it's on my shoulder (on my back). As far as what, this goes hand in hand with this recent post about my faith. Everything has changed for me this year, and the idea for this tattoo actually came to me during mass one day.

Here's what it looks like (sorry about the glare on the first photo, I had A&D slathered all over it):



A close-up with no glare:

It represents obviously my faith, and my kind of "rebirth" into it this year, and also, the fact that since I reconnected with my faith, I see a monarch butterfly EVERYWHERE. As a matter of fact, the minute I walked out of the tattoo parlor, one flew right by me.

Getting this tattoo also represents something else I've been finding myself doing a lot this summer, which is LIVING. There are all these things we always say "I'll do it one day", or things we are simply hesitant, or afraid to do. I've kind of decided to just throw caution to the wind and do them already. There's the tattoo, there's my going to an amusement park and actually riding the rollercoasters that usually scare the crap out of me (and loving it too), there's me agreeing to go canoeing even though I'm deathly afraid of falling into water and being underwater...There are a million and one of these things, and I'm just doing them now.

What are you going to do RIGHT NOW that you've been holding out on? Go on, do it.