Lately I’ve been thinking that I want another tattoo. I have one. It’s on the back of my neck and it took me a very long time to figure out what I wanted and where. I love tattoos but if I’m going to have a permanent mark on my body….well, I wanted it to be something I wouldn’t be mortified by when I’m playing bridge with the other blue hairs at the old folk home. Something tells me a tramp stamp with ‘Enter if you dare’ just wouldn’t go over well.
So, I’ve been trying to think of something meaningful to add to my existing ink. In doing so, I’ve been happily reminded why I got the first one – so I thought I’d share because the message may hit home for you too.
When I was a kid, we used to vacation in Maine. I’m not exactly sure why, but it is burnt into my brain and I love it. I can’t wait to take Will there and I hope that I can make it an annual pilgrimage just like it was for us. Anyway, when we were there, my mom would send me looking for sand dollars. But perfect ones were elusive. I could look forever (oooh smart mother) but I don’t ever remember finding one. Ever since, I’ve loved them – so beautiful, perfect and fragile. When I went back to Maine a few years ago to exorcise some personal demons, I spent hours walking the beach. And the very first night, I found two perfect sand dollars just sitting in the sand. But after that, I never saw another one. But I found many, many beautiful chipped ones or pieces of them and as cliche as it may sound, it hit me that maybe things don’t have to be perfect to be beautiful. Maybe, the most beautiful things have some scratches and dents too. (this does not include my crap ass Hyundai…which is both scratched, dented and hideous).
Anyhoo – bingo! Hello tattoo….imperfect sand dollar. And that’s what I have. Hidden under the hair on the back of my neck. (but whoaaa it’s WAY nicer now three years later and earrings…those are for women without babies!)
My next tattoo…well, I have an idea and god help me – it came from the Bachelorette….shoot me now but I think it will be awesome…but where to put it….
I promise I’ll share the deets when I do it. BUT the only drawback is you can’t give blood for a year after…boo…have you given lately???
Hi Sara! I was on looking at sanddollar tat pics on google and happened upon you… joined urban moms to comment. 🙂 I too am a mom and spent every summer in Maine and would walk the beach and collect sanddollars. Wanted a tat for a long time and finally after deciding it would be a sanddollar waited for a few more years and got it. mine is a little lower down… upper back between shoulder blades. I did this 3 years ago. I still go to Maine and walk the beach every summer, and last year I took in some snail shells i picked up on the beach and had the tattoo artist put those 4 shells around my sanddollar. This year, after getting back from Maine, I went back in and got 3 seagulls added on… 2 on one side and 1 on the other… all in silhouette. I get sooo many comments on my upper back tat; most saying it like nothing they had seen and all asking if it going to continue to be a work in progress. I don’t know what is next to come, but will maybe think of something next year while i am walking along the beach. 🙂
Miss Dee! Thanks SO much for writing in. I looove that idea for a tattoo. And isn’t that funny about the eyes closed. I brought in a onesie that I had for Will – the Cash one – so I could focus on that …and that he’d eventually be in it. I don’t think I opened my eyes the entire time. Good for you for going for it! I bet the A.R. is awesome!
Hi Sara…I just wanted to tell you that I have been following your blog for months now and I find myself identifying so much with many of your musings. I am a single-mom of two…a girl, 8 and a boy, 3…and faced much opposition with both pregnancies…so I am a D.I.Y. myself…just in a different way.
For the first six months of my pregnancy with my daughter, I had almost all of my family and many of my friends telling me that deciding to bring my daughter into the world was a selfish thing to do seeing how not only did her “donor” tell me flat out that he wanted nothing at all to do with this child, that he would do the “honorable” thing and give me some cash to “fix the problem”, but that he promptly disappeared. I decided to D.I.Y…and never looked back.
In many ways she has been the catalyst for so many positive changes in my life…as well as given me an opportunity to become a better person. I look at my life as B.R…Before Rhi…and A.R…After Rhi.
I am also a fellow inker and my first tattoo is a kanji symbol for courage…I got it two days after I found out I was pregnant with her…(I didn’t know at the time that that was a no-no, so forgive me)…and I chose to put it on my upper-thigh. The reasoning being that when my legs were up in the stirrups, I would have something to focus on during the labour…(needless to say, 14 hours into the labour I realized that it’s hard to focus when your eyes are crossed from pushing).
Eight years later it is a reminder of more than just my labour, it is a reminder that my courage to make a decision that didn’t make sense to anyone else but me and in the face of fierce opposition brought me one of the greatest gifts of my life…
…and don’t worry, I have been told by some tweens who volunteer at a retirement home that the seniors with tat’s are considered more interesting…so ink away!
love the southern cross – amazing….
most hilarious response EVER….
I have 7 tattoos and, for the most part, they’re travel related. Either inspired by a trip, someone I met on a trip, or to show how I’ve grown since a trip. The only one that isn’t related to my own travels is my most recent one: a poppy I got on my hip (most painful spot yet!) to commemorate my friends return…alive, thank god…from Afghanistan.
A couple of them I have sat and designed with the artist so they are VERY unique, while others are tattooed “copies” of artwork or just simple designs like the music notes I have behind my ears or the the “southern cross” stars from Australia. Either way…they all mean something very personal to me and I do not regret a single one of them and more than likely never will. Even the one I got when I was 17 is still one of my favourites!
As for growing old and “saggy”…I won’t care what I look like when I’m that age and chances are all the other “grannies” will have one (or more!) tattoos as well!!! haha
Good luck with the ink. A warning to anyone who doesn’t have one: they are highly addictive!!!
Oh a tatoo that will “guard and protect your heart”?
Sweet.
You should come out to the boonies to get it. I know a good place.
Then eat dinner at my house.