My Tat
June 30, 2011So blogs are public….duh. We want people who don’t know us and people who do know us to read this blog and possibly get something out of what we have to say; because that is the reason we started this whole blog process. I had a funny encounter over the phone at work the other day that made me realize even people who you think know you pretty well don’t know everything about you!
Alright, let’s get to the details of the sweet phone call I got last Friday at 2pm. First, I was annoyed because I didn’t want to possibly have to think about a work related phone call that late on a Friday afternoon (this place is a ghost town past noon). Then I saw that it was my good friend from my first gig in the crime world. No problem, pick up the phone and see what’s up, first line out of his mouth, “Carpe Diem, I didn’t know you had a tattoo!” Me, trying to catch my breath a respond, “umm yea! Well, it’s new as of last October…” Like that was going to matter! My tattoo really wasn’t something I walked around work showing people!! So then once I explained the story of the tattoo he totally understood and stopped giving me too much crap about it. Therefore, I thought I’d share the story with you all so I can maybe eliminate any further wonderings because it’s not in a place that can be seen in everyday clothes.
Tattoos aren’t something that I grew up with; neither of my parents has them (although Chuck has been talking about one for the past 5 years…). My parents always told me I wouldn’t want a tattoo showing out of the back of my wedding dress. Well, isn’t that ironic that my wedding day is the reason I ended up with a tattoo! (Insert sarcasm). Anyway, over the years tattoos started to peak my interest and I had many ideas. I’d get the flying track shoes if I completed four years of running at IU, that didn’t happen. I thought about a horse shoe since I’m still horse crazy to this day but that just didn’t really feel right. I always had said if I got a tattoo it needed to mean something. So I never jumped into anything and honestly figured the time had passed and I would live a tattoo free life. My sister and Tom both had tattoos but I didn’t need one to fit in!
Well, insert the events of June 5th. If that day “didn’t mean something” I’m not sure what else I could possible ask for. Jim had a huge chest tattoo that had a whole bunch of stuff but the main part was the saying “Free Will”. Tom had decided he wanted to use the top part of Jim’s Free Will and have that tattooed on his forearm with 6.5.10 underneath. He did this on his birthday last fall since he wasn’t able to go get a beer with Jim. I knew I wanted 6.5.10 incorporated in my tattoo but was still trying to figure out exactly what I wanted. I looked at a few other parts of Jim’s tat but that was Tom’s thing. So I truly thought about how I wanted to live the rest of my life. I knew it had to be Carpe Diem because if June 5th didn’t teach me to “seize the day” than I hadn’t learned anything from The Crash.
(Thanks to the Hubs for taking this photo)
I now proudly have Carpe Diem 6.5.10 tattooed on my left side just below my sports bra line. I chose this spot because you can’t see it in everyday clothes but you can see it when I’m running in a sports bra or wearing a bathing suit. Even though it’s not seen every day I know it’s there and what it means to me. It means I can survive the worst circumstances that even the writers of Grey’s Anatomy couldn’t plot. It’s there when I’m having an uneasy or sad moment to encourage me to push on. This is the only choice I’ve been given out of this whole fucked up situation, to push on and seize every day that I’m granted. You may see me grabbing my left side and no it’s not because I feel sick, it’s because I’m hitting my tattoo and letting myself know that I’m alive and I’m tough.
L