Ink Explained



The start of my second tattoo. Oh, and
huge shout out to Nate Hanson and
Addiction Ink of Mankato, MN!



I got my third tattoo over spring break.  I've been wanting a snowflake tattoo for at least three years.  However, I wrestled with the timing, finances, and where to put it, among other things.  Now was definitely the time to get it, and not because of the record 80+ inches of snow we got this season in Minnesota. 



I'm the one on the left.  Jennifer is on the right.

I'm a very planned person.  I make at least two lists of what I want to pack and what I'll wear on each day before leaving for a vacation. Also, I usually make these lists up to three months in advance.  So, I'm not the type to get some spontaneous tattoo that I'll regret twenty years or five months or thirteen minutes after I get it. My first two tattoos I put the same amount of thought into as well.  I got a matching sister tattoo with Jennifer, and I got a quote on my back that I love.  "Do not hold her misdeeds against her, for in her heart she wanted to do Your will."

The finished product of tattoo numero
dos.  (Note the cool dent in my back.  I
love that dent.  Not sure why it's there,
but I've had it since high school.)



Well, this tat was no different.  I've been planning it since first going to my pastor a few years back about my guilty feelings about, as I put it, "whoring out".  As much as I plan the rest of my life, my sex life just kind of happens, whether I plan to keep my legs closed or plan to open them up to the world.  Drunk or sober, whoever I'm with, it makes no difference really.  And I really didn't like that part of my life.  Don't get me wrong, the sex was decent. . . well, sometimes, but I'm not crazy about the one night stand or friends with bennies scene.  I've done it, but it never really fulfilled me.  So, enter a new chapter in my life where I am actively sticking to my plan for my sex life.  And I start this new chapter with a tattoo of snowflakes.  Ten of them.  With little streams of wind blowing them around.  Right above the crease that connects my right leg to my body (a.k.a. damn close to my "little girl").  And, while we're on the subject of sex and tattoos, lying on my back and getting the tattoo wasn't nearly as awkward as losing my virginity was.  It was however more painful.  Let's just say that Nate, the tattoo artist's needle hurt more than my first boyfriend, Derrick's "needle".  Pun definitely intended.

So, why the snowflakes?  I love winter.  It's my favorite season.  Fall is my least favorite.  In the fall, everything dies.  Leaves fall.  Grass turns brown.  Everything is really ugly, in my opinion.  Sure, the changing leaves are cool for a while, but then they pile up on the ground and ugly naked trees are all over the place shivering.  But the snow comes and makes everything pure and beautiful again. (Now you're starting to make the connection.) 

I've made a lot of decisions I'm not proud of.  I've slept with guys I didn't like.  I've given head to guys that I didn't want to be with.  Yeah.  I've been "that girl".  Dead like the leaves in the gutter on a rainy autumn day.  But then the snow falls.  And everything looks perfect and still and precious and beautiful.  The whole world is frosted like a cake.  There's a lot of crap underneath, but now, that's all forgotten.  Snow is clean, pure, beautiful in my eyes.  And so am I.  I've had a lot of crap in my past.  Some of it I was okay with.  Some of it I wasn't.  Some of it I was talked into.  Some of it I refused the whole time and yet, I was still overpowered.  Some of it was my idea.  Let's just say I've been through a lot since turning in my v-card.  And even though that will still be part of my past, it doesn't define my future.  My future starts with a world covered in snow. 

  



Ten snowflakes later, and we turn
the page.

  

 I also want to point out that there are ten snowflakes.  According to www.random-website-i-found-when-i-did-a-google-search-for-number-meanings-in-the-bible.com, the number ten signifies completeness, the end of something.  And, while I'm not saying that now I won't struggle or still need God's forgiveness in this area of my life, it's definitely the symbolic close of the chapter of my life that I've been dealing with.  God will always give me his amazing and undeserved forgiveness. (Not to go all flaky-christian on you or anything, but it's probably the best part of God there is for me.) 

So, there's the meaning behind the ten snowflake scabs under my underwear right now.  And as we come into spring in the next month, we see that under all that snow is a chance for new life.  Some people get butterfly tattoos for the whole "new life, emerge from a cocoon" transformation in them.  Not me.  I acknowledge with this new tattoo that after the death of autumn and before the surfacing of spring comes a purifying and cleansing snow in my life.  I don't know about you, but I'm excited for the next chapter!