Rebel..

Today should be fairly easy. Piercings and Tattoos...I've got them. The number would probably surprise you, since I seem like such a buttoned up pearl wearing sugary sweet mom next door.
Yeah, right.

Piercings and Tattoos?:

Piercings. I have never been brave..or stupid...enough to pierce much beyond my ears...but the count is as follows....Right ear two holes. Left ear three holes. I just recently did the cartilage in my left ear and am hoping to someday work into a bar spanning the ear....but that takes balls....and I'm not there yet.

Tattoos. I have five. Let's start at the beginning, shall we? My very first one started out courtesy of my asshole ex husband. He had a tattoo. I had always wanted one...but he said "oh no..you can't get one, no way can you handle the pain, you will pass out, you will die, you will CRY." So as I approached the age of 21 and an impending divorce...I decided to get one. Looking back, putting it on the top of my foot was probably not the best choice I made (in a series of otherwise stellar choices.)...but you know, I didn't pass out, die, OR cry...so I'd say I did alright. Ink one is an orange and red Oak leaf on the top of my right foot. Fall is my favorite time of year...and the Oak tree is a symbol of strength. It is faded and jacked...and totally needs to be re-touched and probably just reworked...but I'm just not quite ready to completely let go of it just yet.

Ink two I got after I left a very long and abusive relationship. I had finally found some happiness, some freedom, some sense of purpose...and I commemorated that moment with a dove in flight holding a daisy on my inner left wrist. Doves symbolize peace....something I had been lacking for almost 10 years...and the open wings symbolized me taking flight and flying away. The daisy is my favorite flower...and the ink reminds me where I've been...where I'm going...and where I never want to be again.

Ink three really was just a fun little bonus. I really wanted my astrological sign...Aquarius..in aqua blue..somewhere on my body. Astrology is really important to me and I am very connected with my sign. My daughter and I share the sign...and it fits both of our personalities. So I wanted to have something that linked us both...in an abstract way....I have the Aquarius sign inked behind my right ear, in teal blue honoring her and her love of water.

Ink four...was life changing. My husband (then boyfriend) was deployed. It was difficult, to say the very least. I had never been through a deployment...this was, hopefully, to be his last...and it was his most difficult one to date. There was minimal communication. There were angry seas and zero ports. There was drama. I was working constantly, maintaining a home and family, keeping things as normal as possible for Small, dealing with abnormal medical test results, and facing some scary times. I was outwardly a pillar of strength...but inwardly I was crumbling and falling apart. I was dying a little bit each day. And then I approached my 35th birthday and faced a milestone in my life. Ink four is a large abstract on the entire left side of my back...it has 5 distinct color waves, two large and 3 small......all merging together to meet in the middle. It represents him and I...merging together...blending our families and our children. Each wave is a person, each color an emotion, each decision we make...meeting in the middle. Ink 4 is our life....suffered through on a milestone birthday, during a painful and difficult deployment, facing an unsure and unknown future. But somehow...I knew love would survive and make it....because I had faith.

Ink five is my most recent and my funnest and one of my very favorites. Because I share it with one of my very favorite people....my best friend ever...Lou. We had discussed "Best Friend Ink" for awhile and had gone back and forth on a design that we could both agree on....it seems that I might be a touch more girly than she is...and had finally decided that it was happening when I came out to see her in April! So, she booked the appointments, we settled on a design, and all was right with the world. So...ink five is a braided friendship bracelet in purple (Lou's favorite color) around my right ankle. Tied with a pretty bow. She has the matching one in orange...but without the bow...because that's too much girl for her. Or something like that. Whatever. I love it...and I am proud of what we have been through together, survived, lived, laughed about, and loved. She makes me a better person....and having this ink reminds me to live up to the expectations she has set for me...and the promises I have made her. Plus...it's an experience I wouldn't have wanted to share with anyone else....because Lou just gets me...and all my shit.

So there you have it. I've got lots of other ink plans...I just need husband to catch up and get on board. I like to fancy myself a rebel...and a badass. I suppose I should at least LOOK the part.

See ya on the flip flop side!


XOX!!