A different kind of post

Upper – Shoulder cap to elbow-ish

Lower – Wrist to elbow-ish

So, I have always envisioned a tattoo since I was like 9 years old. At the time I didn’t have the life experience to truly understand the significance of skin art.

It is December 13th. It is Wednesday. I’m working on a post. For as long as I can remember, ever since and perhaps maybe a little bit before I saw Hawaii,  the triathlon known as IRONMAN on Wide World of Sports.  I was mesmerized watching those wonderful athletes do this 3-sport event called Triathlon. 

From those moments, I always thought it would be cool to have some form of tattoo, not because of what I saw or anything like that, but because of its significance.  What it means to permanently mark up or paint your skin!  Now my idea has evolved a lot through the years. Paired with this post are elements and images of what I would like to do.  This runs from my wrist all the way up to my shoulder cap.  It will be my left arm, less dominant, but full of significance of inner work.

What’s most interesting is when I first really thought about it as a younger me,  I had some kind of details and some specific things. But that was well before I had life experience as well as before I had children.  It was well before I had any type of defining life experiences or lessons learned that have led me to where I’m at. Previously,  I always wanted to have something up my neck a little bit and come down so it could just barely be seen.  It was always some form of either a lion or dragon. Something along those lines. I no longer want the animal, but instead the images are now very representative of different elements of life.

Its representative of our family unit – that is me, my wife, my 18-year-old, 8-year-old, 6-year-old, and now 3-year-old. A lot of significance in what I have gleaned doing triathlon, a phrase called “Stillness is the Key”, the imperfect brushstroke around the wrist component (probably about where my watch would be), and then the different elements throughout the design. The hexagon, which is symbolic of the inner workings of a beehive (and self) – which kind of laces in stoicism principle of ‘what’s good for the bee is good for the hive, or what’s good for the hive is good for the bee’.  There’s the nuance of Atlas – even he had to take a knee to take the load and burden of bearing the world.  This may be the part I am most looking for a tattoo artist’s magic – even Liz says she didn’t really like the globes I am currently using, so maybe I need to work on the world element a little bit more.  Concerning the globe, I thought about incorporating a timepiece, which would be actually pretty cool. Thus I need an skin artist to help me finalize it.

So, I’m at the point where I’ve envisioned the various elements that I would really like to have in the tattoo.  I would like it as a sleeve on my left (weaker) arm.  I would like to find an artist. I currently have a loose affinity to one or two I have been tracking on IG, and FB circles.  Now it’s a matter of availability, cost, etc. For placement, I do want to go from wrist up to shoulder cap.  It was funny because I know that Liz, my wife, sees how serious I am about it,  Liz was like, “Are you going to be comfortable with the full?”  I said, “Well if I’m going to do it, let’s do it because I don’t think I’m going to be able to do anymore!”

So, I have always just held off because I was young.  There was nothing of significance I was into at the time.  I’ve just thought it was very cool to have a representative story – which I have uncovered and created through life experiences and triathlon.  Interestingly enough, I have not really concentrated on a tattoo much or thought about it, until the last year.  I injured myself in January.  While being injured, I really started thinking on it about March or April because I wasn’t working out.  I began to pull pieces and elements together. I’ve been through about four iterations now.  With the final addition of the pulse over the brush stroke and the script of ‘Stillness as the Key’ – its ready to collaborate with an artist. 

I wanted to get this into my blog space. I don’t want to have an M-dot branded on me. I don’t want to be branded! Sure, I think it’s interesting – this thing called IronMan!  But at the end of the day!  “Triathlon”, I am grateful for a lot of the things that it has basically wielded out of me.  I am now comfortable basically sitting alone with myself in a room – like whether I am swimming or whether I am on a bike or I am running.  A lot of the training and a lot of time during events is spent alone.  For example, the significance of swimming for me – at first I disrespected the living tar out of it – but it’s probably become one of my more favorite disciplines of the three sports.  The training for it has become one of my favorites, because really when it comes down to it I’m concentrating on two really basic things. Everything else I try to work through, get rid of, and/or let go of it.  I call it the “Sanctuary” .  In swimming, those two things are breathing – so when to breathe and then the second one is my stroke – getting between point A and point B.  That focus means I will not drown.  It’s very simple and those are pretty much the only two things that I try to accomplish when swimming.  I whittle it all down. 

I had a good comfortable swim last night.  What’s rewarding and telling, is when I ANALYZE MY SWIMS-  it’s just so interesting to see the significance of my focused efforts.  The time that I’ve put into the various disciplines and so while I was hurt and injured, I spent time constructing this concept.  I feel its all together and feel it’s time to put it into my blog and see where it goes from there.

The whole thing – shoulder to wrist – sleeve