How to say it

I've been thinking about lettering tattoos lately. They're one of the most popular types of tattoo to get, and I understand the appeal. Words are powerful, powerful things, and the words you choose to have tattooed on your body are a strong statement about who you are.

I wonder the mindset of those who get lettering. I wonder, are they getting a belief tattooed? A wish? A goal? Are they getting who they are or is it who they want to be that they're getting tattooed on themselves?


I have one tattoo that contains text. Most of my tattoos represent in a pictorial way who I am, or what is important to me, but the tattoo on my shoulder wouldn't be complete without the words it has.

Alis Volat Propriis--She Flies With Her Own Wings

When I came upon that phrase I knew I had to have a tattoo that incorporated it. One sunny April afternoon, while visiting Big Eddie in Omaha (this was when he still lived there), I asked him to call up Liquid Courage (an incredible all-custom tattoo shop) to see if they had anyone who would be available to do a tattoo on me. It was a long shot, but it turned out that Johanna had had a cancellation and if we could get there in 15 minutes or less, she would be available to tattoo me. Picture Big Eddie and me barreling down 84th street in his jeep, him trying to describe what I wanted, me spelling it to him and him relaying it over the phone to Johanna so she could have something drawn up by the time we got there. It was quite the to-do. But when we walked in, and I saw the drawing she'd done in the 15 minutes it took us to get there, well, it was worth the hilarity and time crunch.

So that's my wordy-word tattoo. For the longest time I was bothered by what seemed to me to be the hypocritical-ness of it. "She flies with her own wings" is a great sentiment, but how could I, who at that time was still hiding my arm tattoos from my parents, dare to have that tattooed on myself? It was feelings like that (pervasive self doubt, self-consciousness, and leftover guilt) that made me say I'd never get another word tattoo until I was living what I wanted to express.

Now, however, as I've been going through this blossoming of self confidence, and as I'm growing more comfortable with living in a way that shows I'm proud of who I am, I have come to a different conclusion regarding myself and word tattoos. As I said earlier, words are very powerful. And in Big Eddie's words, having a phrase tattooed on you can be totemic, not necessarily reflective. I want to get word tattoos, not because I feel like I am living them, but to encourage me to live them, to keep striving towards the sentiments that are important enough to me to have them permanently present on my body.

Now to find a way to coordinate everything so that we could have a couple of uninterrupted hours for him to tattoo me. Not an easy task, especially when he says he wants to finish up all the big pieces that have been untouched since the spring of 2010. But, I will get them! Probably not as soon as I would like to (like, today) but soon. So yeah, here's where patience comes in. I'm going to be a grownup and relaaaax, because it'll happen.  :)