My Tattoo

It was last spring when I started considering getting a tattoo. Actually I suppose my mind was pretty much made up soon after I realized what I wanted and why, but I decided to give myself until fall to get the tattoo, and I waited that long for two very practical reasons. One is that a new tattoo shouldn't be exposed to sunlight while healing, and since I love wearing sleeveless shirts whenever possible I didn't want to get inked during the spring or summer. Also, I wanted to sit on the idea of a tattoo for a while to be sure that I wanted it. It is a fairly permanent alteration to my body after all.

To briefly sum up why I first decided to get this tattoo: I wanted a permanent reminder on my body that I can work through any anxiety or depression. After my anxiety meltdown (as I'm now calling it) last year this seemed pretty important...especially given that I've had this anxiety disorder my whole life, and I know I lean towards depression too easily for comfort, so it's a given that I'll have tough times again in the future. That's not all the tattoo came to mean to me, as I spent time thinking about it, but the rest of its meaning is for another post.

I knew I wanted a sun, and spent some time looking at various sun designs. I had planned to find a few examples containing elements I liked and then ask my tattoo artist to mash them together, but then I stumbled across something that was almost exactly what I wanted. After asking the artist's permission, I brought in a copy of that piece when getting my tattoo. :)

Getting the tattoo was a surprisingly fast and simple process. I walked into a tattoo place that I had already decided looked good, said I was interested in getting a tattoo, and to my surprise the tattoo artist there was in between appointments. After I filled outsome paperwork we got down to it, and it was amazing to watch the tattoo grow on my arm.

my tattoo

Different topic, but wanted to mention briefly...I've got something I'm working on with photography. I've already got the ball rolling with it, but want to work on it a bit more before I really write about it. You can take a look at what I've got so far, however, here. :)