I think I've always loved tattoos. I can't remember when it all started but by 15 years of age I was hell bent on getting my first tattoo. I knew what I wanted and--except for the exact design and the location on my body--the actual object remained the same until the day I got inked.
Because I was a good little girl back then I dreamed of the idea but didn't dare to get my body permanently marked until I was a fully fledged adult.
I attempted to get this tattoo--the one I'd been dreaming of for so long--as soon as I finished university. But the tattoo parlour was booked out during the free spot I had before jumping on a train to leave town.
I attempted again in another part of the country a year or so later, but they didn't approve of the place I wanted it on my body. (For the record, I was imagining it on my foot but they said the ink doesn't hold very well on the foot and they wanted their artwork to look good for many years. That, and it would be very painful and it would need re-doing every few years 😏).
After that I spent some time reconsidering where I might want this artwork to live out its days.
Fast forward another year and I was in yet another location, having yet another conversation and suddenly it was obvious; this tattoo had to go on my lower back.
It felt right. I had my drawing. I was ready to go.
And it was less than 6 months later, when I had a long time to wait between a bus arriving and a ferry departing that I got my chance. And just to be sure I was clear on my design I looked through the drawings they had in their decked out tattoo parlour. One jumped out at me that I liked even better than the one I had be carrying around in my wallet for years.
Less than 30 minutes later I had my very first tattoo; two geckos chasing each other in a circle.
As a young adult I always thought I'd get my one tattoo and content with that. But no sooner had it healed that I wanted the next one!
However, unlike with the first one, I endlessly day dream about what my next tattoo will be.
And it changes constantly.
I'm forever falling in love with some epic quote.
I'll find that I love it so much I imagine it being inked on my skin using some lovely healthy, vegan ink (unlike the first one!). I think about where it will look best, and ask myself how often do I want to see it (occasionally in the mirror or multiple times every day?). I consider the font and how big or small I would want it to be.
And then I drop it.
And then a few weeks or months later I fall in love with another epic short quote, or word, or idea and the cycle begins again! 😂
In the last 20 years or so I have been fascinated by other people's tattoos. I have stared. I have asked questions. I have loved on some of the gorgeous, simple, elegant and, at times, bold designs I've seen. And my heart has often soared as I saw the way people use their body like a piece of art.
But I still haven't settled on a second tattoo...
I keep considering the merits of henna; this plant-based, temporary ink that only lasts a handful of days that is commonly used other parts of the world. I keep thinking it would be way more sensible to get inked with this stuff with any of the innumerable ideas I have 😄
But after doing this once a few years ago I realised that for the amount of time it takes to find someone, get inked in henna and let it dry, it really doesn't last that long. It's a little underwhelming, for my purposes at least.
So my curious enquiry continues.
I dream. I ponder. I imagine.
Yet to this day nothing, not even my favourite phrases, have spoken to my soul the way the geckos from my childhood did.
So I remaine, for now, as I am: with no more and no less than my one beautiful tattoo.
This was my entry into this week's
Ladies of Hive Community Contest #66.
I answered this question:
If you had to get a tattoo right now, what tattoo would you choose?
If you're a lady and you'd like to enter this particular contest, there are about 36 hours left, at time of writing, to do so.
Check out all the details here.
Thanks for the invite to participate 
Does this topic interest you 
Thanks for the question(s) and all your work in LOH 
And thanks for the fun conversation that gave me the spark to do this 