#98 - Get a Tattoo

So I just kinda assumed this one was on my list.  Apparently it wasn't this year.  But...  since it's kind of a big one, I just replaced another one that I didn't like anymore.  :)

Pre-2011
I never thought I would get a tattoo.  When the topic would come up in conversation, I would think, there's just nothing in my life that is really, really personal that I know I will continue to love for the rest of my life.  I'm not exactly a fickle person but I couldn't think of anything that had always been in my life, that would always be in my life, that I felt so connected to that I could see it everyday.  I mean, I liked playing volleyball.  Nope.  I like... strawberries?  Nope.  A block M?  No...  None of those things were personal or meaningful enough for me.  Plus, putting something permanent on my body seems so personal to me that I would never do something that was really about my connection to another person.  That may also be because I've lost some pretty meaningful connections in my life but also because the long-term connections I have just... dont' make sense in tattoo form.  So no tattoo.

2011
Um...  Duh, Megs.  Of course I have something personal and meaningful, something where my connection to it is just mine.  When I first tell people about it, they usually react with something akin to "um... okay..."  But the folks who have known me for a long time know that it's just part of me.  That thing is my love of sharks.  I LOVE SHARKS.  I love them.  I always have.  From the first day I watched Shark Week.  And yes, Shark Week became a hip thing to watch for a bit recently but I've been watching it since elementary school.  It was the only thing I was allowed to stay up until 10pm to watch... probably because I'd throw a fit if I didn't and we didn't have DVR back in the day.  So... a shark.  I'd get a tattoo of a shark.  It's so obvious to me now.

2012
If I get a shark, what kind of shark would it be?  I wanted a pretty shark.  The way I see sharks.  I wanted the feeling I get when I go to my Chicago Happy Place: the Shark Reef at the Shedd Aquarium.  I had a membership for 3 years, pretty much just because of that tank.  If I was having a rough week, I'd go to the Shedd, wander around a big, see my favorite snake (the Emerald Tree Boa in the Amazon), the poison dart frogs, maybe the jellies, and then I'd go see the sharks.  The big sharks.  The sandbar and black tip reef sharks.  The leopard sharks.  The guitar fish if I were lucky (which really only seemed to happen when I went with Laura Masters).  I wanted a tattoo that gave me that awe-full feeling I had in front of that tank.  They're so beautiful and incredible, especially when swimming out of the murky depths in the back of the tank to the window.  So fluid.  I wanted something that gave that beautiful shape and motion.  I couldn't find the design I wanted so I picked an artist at Deluxe in Chicago.  But then...

2013
... I decided to move to San Diego.  I decided to wait for San Diego for 3 reasons.  1) I was leaving Chicago partly to let go of some tough times, so why would I get something permanent that kept me connected just at the point when I was trying to let go?  2) Um... I was moving to San Diego, where tattoos are pretty standard and it felt like part of my initiation into the culture.  And 3) Yeah, moving to SAN DIEGO, you know, where there's the, like, ocean, with actual sharks in it.  Plus, I found my design.

I also thought a lot about the meaning.  I suppose I have a lot of connections to sharks.  I think they're beautiful, mysterious, resilient, misunderstood...  They have incredible sensory abilities.  They attack the weak and in doing so make the whole stronger.  They live in the moment.  They've been around forever and have only changed what's been necessary.  I just think they're beautiful animals.

Then, I had a lovely conversation with Grace Bagunu and our classmate Lucia about getting tattoos.  We decided to go get ours done/retouched together.  Then Tara Edberg joined the gang with the hopes of adding onto a previous tattoo.  Possibly some others were interested too.  It's tough to keep track.  People in San Diego get tattoos a lot.

So Grace found an artist she likes but he was far-ish.  Tara & I decided to hung around for places near us.  Well, Tara did.  I was too hungover to join in during the time we actually planned it.  So she did some hunting without me and then I joined her on Sunday.  We were going to go visit 3 places that were very highly rated on Yelp.

We first went to the Full Circle in North Park.  They were very friendly.  The woman at the front told us we could look through the portfolios and then either make an appointment or they might be able to get us in that day.  She introduced us to James, one of the artists, and he chatted with us about our plans.  He said he could fit us both in.  He took a tracing of Tara's tattoo and I e-mailed him my design, and he told us to come back in 20 minutes after he sketched them out.

Um... 20 minutes?!  I thought we were just shopping around, Tara!  We were supposed to go to 2 other places.  But...  then we talked more and I kinda run a swim program, and the pool was completely closed for at least another week, so if I didn't get it then, I'd probably have to wait until the end of the summer.  I did not want to do that.  So...screw it.

I called Grace because I knew she wanted to be a part of it.  She sounded sleepy.  She was sleepy.  I was quite torn between waiting for her to be there with me and wanting to stop putting it off and just do it.  (I have recently developed an INCREDIBLY low tolerance for people talking about doing things but not actually following through.  It's not so much the not following through that bothers me as much as the waste of time of talking about doing something and then not actually doing it.  So maybe it is the follow through.  But I'm tired of talking and not doing.  I want to do.)  So I decided to go through with it.  Grace, being the lovely friend she is, still came down.  She just missed my inking but was there for Tara's.  We probably should have switched order but Tara was worried that James wouldn't have time for both of us and wanted me to get mine done.  So Grace, again, my apologies.  You're a good friend.  I think I need to learn to trust my new friends' words that they are doers, not just talkers.  It may take me some time, but I'll work on it!

So I have a tattoo now.  I flipping love it.