Getting Tatted is fun

I have six tattoos and am preparing for another.  By preparing, I mean I'm waiting until I can afford it.  I would recommend that everyone at least entertain the idea of getting some ink.  If nothing else, tattoos remind you of the person that you used to be.  Yeah, I know they might look silly when I get old but, I probably won't care too much because I get increasingly crotchety as the days go by and I doubt I'll care how sexy women think I am when my skin gets all saggy.  That being said, these are my tattoos and a brief explanation of them all.

This is my first tattoo (year 2000).  I wanted to get one and two of my frat brothers were headed down to get some work done.  This is exactly the same tattoo that one of the older frat brothers has on his leg.  I was going to get a bigger one (It's only about 3inches x 2 inches)  but once I saw the stencil, I was like "No, that looks like it'll be painful enough".  I soon found out something very interesting:  Chicks love guys with tattoos.  Thanks Kenny and J.C. for dragging me along.  Honestly, It didn't hurt that much.  Little did I know, that was only because it was in good spot.

Tattoo number 2, however was pure torture.  As much as the first one was at a good spot, this one was terrible placement, from a pain standpoint.  I'm not gonna front, my eyes were a little watery leaving the chair after this one.  It felt like the needle was directly on my spine as it was being colored in.  If you can't see it, there's a little part in the middle of the cross that is in the shape of a sigma.  It looks great and I got the Gothic cross as a reminder to stay true to my belief in the Christian love ethic.  I believe in Jesus' message even though I really don't like going to church.  I mean, Isn't spreading love enough of a mantra to live by?  I left the sigma symbol in there because it signifies my personal relationship with God and the world.  I feel like I can be somewhat Holy and be my drinking, smoking, fornicating self.  It's possible, I promise you.

I took it to the motherland for tattoo number three.  This is the eye of Horus (2002).  It represents the third or spiritual eye.  Plus, a brother like gotta keep it black.  That's just how I roll!  The pain factor was somewhere between the first two.  Luckily your chest numbs up much faster than your spine.  It seemed like every time the tattoo would get started, I would be surprised how much it hurt only to man up after a few minutes.

It says "Revolutionary" (I can't figure how to rotate the image).  These 13 letters didn't hurt at all.  It got a little infected near the "y" because I left the bandage on too long.  I had to because I was coaching football to kindergartners.  The tattoo worked out better than our season.  (We went 1-5).  The ink was inspired by my favorite Black Panther movie clip.  Fred Hampton once said "I am a revolutionary.  I am the people, I am not the pigs... You have to make a distinction".  This was me making my distinction.

First of all, no I wasn't ashy, the flash made it look like that!!!  This is my most controversial tat.  It says "unfuckwittable" (also, there's a nice shot of my brand, which didn't hurt at all compared to the tattoos)  I wish I could say that I made up the word but I didn't.  The first time I heard somebody say it was Talib Kweli saying "Lyrically, on the mic, I'm unfuckwittable" ("Rush" from the Quality album).  It was one of the illest assertions of confidence I've ever heard.  I was starting to really get into hip-hop at that time and was adopting that rapper-like swagger.  Everybody needs a little help keeping his/her head up once in a while.  For me, this tattoo reminds me to show my strengths instead of my weakness.  It reminds me of all the stuff I've made it through.  It also impresses people at basketball courts.   Side note:  My mother HATES this one! When I taught 5th grade summer school, the kids took about 2 weeks to figure out what it said.

My latest work simply reads "Affirm Life".  It came from Suheir Hammad's poem "First Writing Since".  The poem is about her feelings about the 9/11 attacks and the anti-Arab sentiment that soon followed.  In the end she says "You're either with life, or against it.  Affirm Life."  I don't think I've ever heard such solid advice so I have it right under my collar bone.

I think my next tattoo will simply say "Cogito".  Not because it is my online persona but because it means "I think" in Latin.  Being tall and Black, people usually assume that I am an idiot.  It can be very frustrating.  I won't let people see me as some mindless brute.  I think, therefore I AM COGITO!!!!