Dave and I drove to some shady-looking place next to "massage parlors" and I prepared to allow a total stranger to permanently alter my body.
Dave and I both got inked (yes, I said "inked" and yes, I know I'm a loser) - Mine: "1 John 4:7-12" - His: "God is love" in Greek.
For real, though, we are very excited about these new, permanent developments. We are not yet ready to buy a home or have children - uhhhh WAY to permanent at this point. While I can just put a cardigan on if I choose not to expose the tattoo, unfortunately, we cannot just "put a cardigan" over a child if we're like, "uhh CRAP. We're gonna be raising this kid for HOW MANY more years?"
I mean, we do want to have kids at some point, and maybe even own a home (we're less certain about that one), but for the time being, we're taking smaller steps into permanent-life-choices-land.
Before we got married, Dave and I talked about getting tattoos on the under-side of our ring fingers, but quickly found that that's not a good idea because apparently tattoos in that area eventually just rub off. So then I thought I should get a tattoo on the front of my finger like Beyonce, but then I realized that, unlike Beyonce:
a. I'm not black
b. I still have to be concerned about keeping "normal people at normal jobs areas" (ie face/neck/hands/lower arms/legs) tattoo-free. No tear-drops on the face, no initials on the fingers. Got it.
For real, though, that's cool, right? Hidden, of course, by her ginormous ring, but cool nevertheless.
Anyway, I've never really been morally against tattoos, I just never really wanted to get one unless it had a really special, emotional meaning to me. Which, I think, has saved me from ever getting some crazy tattoo that I once thought was cool but now am embarrassed by.
So, we eventually decided to get tattoos referencing 1 John 4:7-12 since that's a passage we really focused on in preparing to get married, and it's the verse the pastor preached on during our wedding ceremony. It's not really like a "life verse" but it is something we focused on in trying to learn about marriage and how we wanted to live as husband and wife. Since we're planning to wear these wedding rings for the rest of our lives as a symbol, we thought it would be special to also have something permanent on us to reference the love that God has called us to live out within our marriage, and in life in general.
So that's the meaning behind our choices. Now onto the weird experience of actually going to the tattoo parlor.
First of all, I was very nervous about the experience. Not really about the pain - just about the whole experience of going to the tattoo parlor and going through with it.
Thankfully, the guy who tattooed us was really nice and made me feel at ease. It also helped that, while I was getting my shoulder blade done (a relatively pain-free place to have a tiny little knife repeatedly stabbing you. I think that's the idea. Still not totally sure what was happening back there), I was facing a young guy (I'm guessing he was about 19 judging from the fact that he looked super young and didn't have enough money to get the tattoo he originally wanted when he walked into the parlor 15 minutes earlier) getting a tattoo down the side of his stomach. YIKES. Why there? I don't know.
Was he getting a tattoo of old-English block lettering of his last name? Of course. Was he also a teenage white guy who's probably from a middle-class family in the suburbs and wants to seem like he's a punk? Obviously. Why even ask that.
We're all so predictable. I wish the tattoo artists would try to guess what each patron wanted, instead of asking. I mean, seriously, I bet they could guess correctly most
of the time.
Anyway, I know it may be predictable, but the thing is - I kind of enjoy having this on my body now! I love it. And I like the fact that, although it is - on some levels -superficial, it's still a permanent reminder (and "proclamation" when I'm in a strapless dress) of God's love for us, my love for Him, and the commitment that Dave and I have made. So, I like that.
Here's a few pictures of me being a total badass who's like BRING THE PAIN (jk I was shaking due to fear and also the Monster I drank on the way to the tattoo parlor), and of our tattoos when we were all done:
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