Ever since I started to find myself and accept who I am I've known that I will have tattoos. I love the beautiful art that is tattooing and the beautiful pieces of art you get to proudly display on your skin for the rest of your life. Therefore with all of my tattoos, minus my pony, I've thought about them for a significant length of time before getting them. I'm not the kind of person who relishes regrets, and I've known a number of people with many involving their tattoos. Consequently I wanted to get something that would have meaning for me in the now, and meaning for me in the future.
I decided on getting an Ankh tattoo on my wrist. And there is more meaning than just "the Egyptian symbol for life". I also got it done in varying shades of blue to represent what truly is life to me, water. I have been swimming since I was little and swimming was my solace for a dark time in my life. I also got it shortly after I turned 18, (my mom had a request that I not get any tattoos while I was living with her) as a symbol of me surviving the darkness that was my high school years. Dramatic, I know. But bigger than that, I got it as a symbol to remember that every day is a day worth living. So even when I'm having a dark day, I can look down at my wrist and know that today is a day that I am lucky to be alive, and that is more that enough reason to think positively.
One of my best friends happened to have a very talented tattoo artist as a brother-in-law who worked at a pretty decent shop. I went in, then chickened out asking for him specifically (I had only met him once or twice before and he has a very big, fast moving personality) and ended up with a girl who hadn't been tattooing for very long. It turned out pretty well, and I was pretty stoked.
Then, in my typical stupid clumsiness, I gouged out a giant chunk of it with my own fingernail. Epic fail. But by this time, I had actually gotten a tattoo from the friend's brother-in-law and he fixed it for free. And he not only fixed it, he made it better than before. As he said, he added some "shawiiing" to it.
I don't have a particularly good picture of it right now. I'll work on that when I'm feeling more adventurous. ;)