I was thinking this morning it had been a while since I tapped the keyboard for a blog entry. Sure enough, it's the last day of July and this will be my only post for the month. It's not like I haven't had anything to say, it's just that the evening time gets away from me and we all know that I would never ever think of writing during the work day - I'm a dedicated public servant who wouldn't think of such a thing...
Okay, now that you've stopped laughing, on to the topic of the day: More tattoos.
When we were in Guatemala, a few of us walked to a small village called Santa Cruz. While there, we were pleasantly accosted by three young boys playing up their financial plight. "Estamos pobre" (we're poor) they kept saying as they worked to conjure up frowns and hide the joy that had been on their faces (from the fun they'd been having playing soccer). After they conned us out of a breakfast bar, one pointed down at the dolphin tattoo on my left ankle and said "pescado...es final, es final" (the fish, it's final, it's final). It was his way of saying "that thing is going to be on you for life - even when you get old and your ankles swell up so much that the dolphin looks more like a whale."
So what did I decide to do? Get a tattoo on my other ankle. After all, I don't want my dolphin/whale to be lonely in its old age. I got the dolphin when I was 30 so I'm surprised I waited this long to add to my body art. But I really wanted another tattoo to commemorate the 44th anniversary of my birth so I made an appointment with our favorite tattoo artist, Malia, for Thursday of this past week. July 24th was exactly 2 months before the big birthday and Malia had an opening, so I put my name on her calendar. Sadly, we actually had to get in the car and drive to the appointment. She used to work out of Ink and Dagger tattoo just around the corner from us, but I got to be one her first customers in her new location, Memorial Tattoo, about 5 miles away.
I had previously decided that I wanted a turtle as part of my tattoo and already had the design in mind. The turtle has significance for me in many ways: longevity, wisdom, land and water, protection, move at your own pace, and lounge lazily in the sun alongside the lagoons of Hilton Head Island but also co-habitate nicely with the alligators (don't take that the wrong way Doc. B.!).
In addition to the turtle, I wanted a nod to the number four. So after much research, I decided on a Zia Pueblo sun symbol. "Zia" means sun and to the Zia Indians, the number four is sacred. It represents the four seasons, the four directions and it's all bound together by a never-ending circle. Perfect.
Here are some photos from my experience. Oh, and speaking of birthdays, Doc. B. will turn 45 in 20 days - 08/20/2008 - say it with me like this: "oh eight, two oh, two oh, oh eight."
