weekended! or, I HAZ A TATTOOO!

so my friends came this weekend! we tromped through the absolutely miserable blizzardy storm on saturday to see eastern market, went to the newseum, stopped for tea, then had more (wonderful!) food at indique. we went skating on sunday then gorged ourselves on (omg delicious) cupcakes.

and then they had to go back to nyc. and so i went and got a tattoo.

i've been wanting a tattoo since i was about 18, but never went for it because i couldn't think of anything that i wanted permanently imprinted on my body forever. and ever. and EVER and omg maybe i just shouldn't get a tattoo? ok.

but then last year i realized i had been having that conversation with myself for a full decade. and i STILL wanted a tattoo. after ten years of *wishing* i had a tattoo, i was pretttty sure i wasn't going to regret the decision if i went ahead and got one; i just had to bite the bullet and come up with something i liked.

i started sketching designs shortly after that. i was pretty sure i wanted some sort of celtic knot, and maybe another icon in the center of it that had personal meaning to me? one of the symbols i considered for the middle of the knot was a fleur de lis, since i've spent time in france - 10 weeks living with a family when i was in highschool, and a full year at a french university for my junior year of college. i still speak french (although, admittedly, not as well as when i lived there!) and identify strongly as a francophile.

anyway, it became apparent that the fleur de lis didn't look right AT ALL with the knot design, but i was having a hard time discarding it entirely. and then all of a sudden i decided it would look TOTALLY PERFECT on the inside of my left wrist, and i've been completely determined to do it ever since.

(rachel - after our gchat last night, i realized i probably have you to thank for that inspiration! at the time i didn't know why i was all LEFT WRIST IS PERFECT AND WHERE IT MUST BE FULL STOP, but i bet it was from the first time i saw yours at lucky bar and fell in love with it.)

so! i did NOT get this tattoo to honor the new orleans saints' first superbowl appearance, as impressive as that accomplishment is for them, go saints, rah rah rah etc. although i realize it sort of looks that way, what with the timing. but nope! it's to honor the big dorky francophile part of myself, and as a reminder that i want to keep that part of me alive and active. which maybe means more trips back to france to keep my french up, OH DARN.

i'm still planning on the knot tattoo, incidentally. that design is almost done and i'll probably bring it into jinxproof soon for some help in making it purdy. i totally loved them there, by the way - super friendly, made me feel really relaxed about the whole situation (eg First! Tattoo! Eek!), and the place was clean and lovely and my tattoo artist was phenomenal. i didn't have the wee sketch i'd done of the style of fleur de lis i wanted on me, so i looked through a page of fleur de lis designs they had on hand, and i just... didn't like any of them. so i sketched what i wanted right there on some scrap paper, and my dude took the design and made it perfect. like, perfectly symmetrical and awesome.

so: i am now inked. and i LOVE IT SO MUCH. i get these occasional pangs of "OH MY GOD I JUST PUT THAT THERE FOR! EVER! AND! EVER! AM I INSANE??" but they are overshadowed with downright adoration for the tattoo. i literally keep stopping to gaze at my wrist, smitten. i think it was the right choice. :-)