Third Tattoo: Story + Meaning.

They say once you get a tattoo, it becomes addicting. In 2014, I told myself this was going to be the first and last tattoo I’ll ever be getting, yet here we are 5 years later talking about the third one I recently just got.

So yeah, on September 14th around 5ish on a nice ass breezy evening, I got my third tattoo.

I wanted this tattoo to be a little different than the ones I previously got. You see, my first tattoos are simply just lettering, which I thought was going to be the only tattoos I would ever put on my body. I told myself I wanted to be covered in words since I am a writer, and honestly, I would’ve stood by that goal if it wasn’t for the inspiration I had behind this tattoo.

My first tattoo was an homage to a TV show that ultimately saved my life back in 2013 and 2014, my second one was inspired on what I do, and this third one I wanted to dedicate it to the album that has saved my life a couple of times throughout the years: Kelly Clarkson’s My December. I’ve definitely spoken about this album in detail plenty of times on the blog, but one thing I left out was that even when I was a teenager, I wanted a tattoo that symbolized the album in a unique way. Of course, I never had an idea for what I would get to do so, so after a while, I just completely forgot about the idea. Until recently.

What makes My December such a beautiful album is that no matter how old I get and how young I was when it was first released, I related (and still relate) to those songs on the album. Kelly Clarkson has made it apparent that this album was written during one of the darkest points in her life, yet it’s honestly the most honest and real albums I’ve ever heard of music coming from an artist. Kelly fought for this album to be released; her recording label didn’t agree on the genre that she was now gravitating towards, which lead to poor promotions and record-low sales for an album of hers. Many people may not know this album when I tell them about it, but I certainly do, and it continuously impacts me the same way it did when I was 13-years-old back in 2007. It was a masterpiece in my opinion.

So, on Track 4 of the album, Sober, is possibly one of Kelly’s best songs for many reasons. The message behind it takes about the loss of toxicity in your life and having to rebuild yourself in a more positive matter, and whenever Kelly gets the chance to perform the song, it’s beautiful. She once told the story of how the song was inspired by a quote a friend once told her: “you just have to pick all your weeds and keep the flowers.”

And it’s so true.

For a person that hoards a lot of things in life, sometimes holding onto them hurts you more than it would if you let go. Sometimes, the weeds that are in your garden of life is killing the other things in it, and you just got to pick them all out in order to let the beautiful things in life, the flowers, remain beautiful. Also, sometimes removing the distracting weeds allows you to see the good things that are going for you in life.

So, I got this tattoo (template was found online) and thought that this was a perfect representation of the lyric.

Of course, I went to my usual guy in Brooklyn to get it tattooed, and the rest is history. Honestly, I’m in love with it.

I love how delicate and sweet the drawing is; it’s feminine, it’s a fine line tattoo, and I love how clean the whole thing came out. I can’t lie; I was in a lot of pain at some points where the needle hit the most sensitive spots, and all I could think about is how do people sit in these chairs for hours getting a tattoo. This one was probably 10 minutes tops, and it felt like I was there for 30. I did bleed a lot, which worried me because I never bled as much as I did with my other two tattoos, but apparently, I have “great tattoo skin”, and doing such fine lining like this is usually difficult to achieve. So, I’m glad for my “good tattoo skin”. 

It was a bittersweet moment going to the spot where I got my first two tattoos because it brings back a ton of memories. The first time I ever been there to get tattooed, I was 20, blonde, and someone special to me accompanied me for the journey. The second tattoo, I got into a great conversation with the tattoo artists about my favorite TV show ever while getting tattooed. This time around, it felt like I came full circle in an odd way.

I say that because I never thought I would get something drawn on my body. I was always too afraid for image pieces tattooed on my body. I knew I couldn’t handle the pain, I thought I would look ugly with a bigger, image piece on me, and I thought I would regret it once the high of getting a tattoo wore off. But I did it. I got through it, I love it, and although I shouldn’t get too deep about a damn tattoo, this truly represents a life that is continuously introducing me to new things.

So, yeah, I guess I’m picking the weeds and keeping the flowers. Hopefully, my garden of flowers will turn out beautiful.