Every tattoo tells a story. Here are mine:
In December of 2008 I got my first tattoo. I was home for Christmas break during my second year of University and I convinced my brother that we should go to the city to get tattoos. By this point, he already had a number of tattoos (he has 2 full sleeves, plus much of his back and ribs tattooed now), so he had prepped me for exactly what it would feel like. I wasn’t scared of the pain, but I was scared of getting something permanently inked on my body.
I had thought long and hard about what I wanted, and there was nothing super meaningful coming to mind at that point, so I decided to choose something safe; something that I wouldn’t regret 10 or 20 years down the road. I decided to get my families initials tattooed on my foot, each separated by a heart. I figured that of all the things that would come and go and I would like and not like, my family would always remain the same.
Some people say that tattoos are super addicting (they kind of are), but I waited 6 years before I got my next tattoo. Ryan and I were in Cusco, Peru, nearing the end of our 6 month backpacking trip in South America. I had been talking about getting a second tattoo for a while, but I hadn’t taken the time to find a a good tattoo parlour.
We went out for a walk to get some chocolate, and Ryan mentioned that he had walked by a tattoo parlour earlier that day and asked if I wanted to check it out. We went by and I asked the guy if he could tattoo a small sparrow on my wrist. He said yes, he could do it right then and there. So, just like that my adventure to get chocolate turned into an adventure getting a tattoo.
I chose a sparrow because they are a bird that travels far distances, but always comes home. I like to think that the sparrow represents my desire to travel and explore, but my love for where I come from. Back in the day, sailors used to get sparrows tattooed on themselves when they had returned from a long voyage out at sea.
In October of 2015, I stopped in Bozeman, MT to visit one of my very best friends, Chelsey. Chelsey and I did yoga teacher training and we have a bond that is different than a lot of my other friendships. We were driving home from a day of exploring and Chelsey mentioned that she knew of a cool tattoo artist in the area and asked if I wanted to check it out. So, we went and I decided to get a lotus flower on the top of my spine below my neck. There had been a girl in our YTT who had a similar tattoo that I had totally fallen in love with, so it felt right to be getting this tattoo with Chelsey.
Lotus flowers grow from mud, yet they are beautiful and pure. To me, this symbolizes that things that sometimes we need hardships and challenging times in order to get the great stuff. This was easily my most painful tattoo, and although it’s beautiful, I don’t think I would endure that type of pain for ink on my body ever again.
I got my fourth tattoo last December. Ryan and I were in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a month and I decided that I was going to get a bamboo ink tattoo. These are really popular to get in Thailand, but you do have to be careful that you go to a place that is good. This is my only tattoo that I did any research beforehand for, and actually scheduled an appointment that included a consultation.
For a while, I had been talking about getting a world map tattooed on my rib cage and I felt like then was the perfect time to do it. I wanted a map of the world tattooed on my ribs because I love to travel, I love to explore other cultures and meet new people, and I really love the world.
I got my fifth tattoo just over a month ago on a trip in Portland with my friend Chelsey. I sort of had this feeling that we might get a tattoo together (it seems to be our thing!), so I had already thought of a couple things that I wanted to get. We both decided to get Om signs. I went for a small, simple om, and she went for a larger and more detailed one. Both of them suit our personalities well.
In Yogic philosophy, the sound of om is said to be the sound that the universe starts and ends with, connecting us all. This tattoo is quite possibly my most cliche tattoo, but to me it symbolizes my love of my yoga practice, my career as a yoga teacher, and oneness with universe and the people in my life.
For now, this is where the stories of my tattoos end. People often ask how I decided to get a tattoo, and if I regret them afterwards. All my tattoos have been done spontaneously, although I’ve gotten something that I’ve been thinking about for a while. They all represent parts of who I am and pieces of my life, and even though I am not the same person I was in 2008 or 2014, I don’t regret any of my tattoos, because they tell a story about who I was then, which is a part of who I am now.