Saturday, August 6, 2011

He's The Ink Under My Skin

Tattoos. They're my new favorite addiction. I browse through pictures upon pictures of beautiful tattoos on Pinterest every single day. After getting my first one in April for my 25th birthday and my second one, a very spontaneous but albeit adorable cupcake on my arm, I've been itching to get my next one. Or two. Or three.

A lot of song lyrics have inspired me for ink ideas. Simple lines from songs can represent such poignant parts of our lives. There are times when I hear a particular song and I'm hit with instant nostalgia and I'm taken directly to a moment in my life where that song spoke volumes to me. I know there's a lot of negative connotations connected to people with tattoos but I find them to be beautiful. Ever since getting my owl which is dedicated to my beautiful Great Nana, I search out people with tattoos and inquire about them. What do they mean? (If they mean anything at all.) <---- This was part of an interesting conversation I had with J's tattoo artist when he got his first one about a week ago. Sometimes people get tattoos because the design itself represents something important or meaningful, sometimes the tattoo itself doesn't have a specific meaning, maybe it was just the ritual of getting that tattoo at that specific time in that person's life. Almost like a stamp to remind them of that point in time. My owl has a very significant meaning, where as my cupcake simply represents a spontaneous moment in my life where my best friend and I just wanted to celebrate being random. I picked the cupcake because I do love to bake, but that was just luck that they happened to have that design that day.

One of the most beautiful tattoos I inquired about recently on a stranger was a sequence of tattoos where a rifle turned into a tree branch. Simply said, she said it represented the transformation of death into new life.


Here are just a few lines from songs that I would get tattooed on my body. One of them I'm actually getting in a few days...
Just have to wait and see which one it is.

More than this. -From Peter Gabriel's More than This.
I fell in love with this song when I came home from Burkina. It struck a chord in my heart and made me really think upon the idea that there is so much more than what I see every day. We can get so enveloped in our own little worlds and become so selfish when there's so much more than this.


Let Go. -From Frou Frou's Let Go. Such simple words, but it means so much to me. Sometimes it's hard not to hang on to things of the past and let them dwell within us. I need this as a reminder to just let go of it all and move on and cherish what's beautiful in life.

She's the sea I'm sinking in. He's the ink under my skin. - The Civil Wars. Simply stated. It's kind of an homage to my relationship with J. We go through a lot together. We have our rough patches. But just like a tattoo is permanent, he is a permanent part of my life and I can't imagine my life without him.



Don't let your soul get lonely child
It's only time, it will go by
Don't look for love in faces, places
It's in you, that's where you'll find kindness


-Ray Lamontagne Be Here Now- I can't begin to tell you how many times I've cried while listening to this song. During a rough patch in my life a very dear friend of mine sent me a CD with all of Ray's music on it. The instant i heard this song I was forever impacted by the lyrics.