Tattoo #2

Back in college I got my first tattoo. It was not your standard 'I was so messed up and I woke up with a huge butterfly tribal symbol across my back' situation though.

After wanting a tattoo for years I finally decided that I would get one in college when a friend of my parents gave my sisters and I money for the holidays and said we could spend it however we wanted. My sensible sisters probably bought sweaters or alcohol, but I decided that, whereas those were things I had actually budgeted for, extra money should be spent on something you hadn't purchased yet because you hadn't had surplus cash.

So I did a little research and on a random weeknight, sitting on the back of a couch in our guy friends' dorm room, I looked at my roommate and quietly said, "You want to go with me tomorrow to get a tattoo?" To which she said "Yeah!" then paused and said, "I don't have to get one too, right?" No, L, did not have to get one too, but I was a little concerned that I might be in too much pain to drive home and I wanted a witness anyway.

The next morning we went downtown to the Baltimore tattoo museum and I showed the big, burly, and very sweet tattoo artist the Gemini symbol I had picked out. Simple, black, small, and something that would always be true about me. He penned a trial version on my right lower back, we decided it was too high (I didn't want it to be visible in every pair of pants I wore), and he said he'd adjust it.

Straddling the backwards stool, fit with handlebars for gripping in pain, I chatted with my roommate until he said to take a look.

"Yeah, there's good, you can do it."
He and L just looked at me. "It's done," he informed me.

And so I had my first tattoo.

7 years later and I think I'm finally ready for #2, which is funny since the first looks just like a swirly Roman numeral two, or my second tattoo. As I mentioned before my first one is on my right lower back, and off center tramp stamp, so I'd like to go with a different area of my body.

For awhile I really like the wrist tattoo, but I'm (unfortunately) not a rock star, so I just don't think that's appropriate. Right now it's looking like it's going to go on the left side of my rib cage, just below where my bra sits, although I'm not sure if I'll go vertical or horizontal with it. The design will somehow involve 3 stars for my sisters and I, but I think I'm going to keep it basic.

For awhile I was playing around with the idea of a "3" in a really cool font, but then I remembered that everyone confuses my first tattoo with a roman numeral, or worse when my pants are covering the bottom of it a pie symbol, so I think I'll stay away from anything else that could go with a math geek theme.