As the big 2-3 approaches, I find myself reflecting upon my more youthful times. As a young teen I spent many hours in the back of Sinkin’ Ink, exploring the personal expression found through body art. I have always been a rather artsy fartsy person and was overjoyed at the prospects of using my skin as a canvas in which to mark growth, change and cardinal moments in my life.
My first tattoo was at age 13 – a birthday gift from my father. His motives were not only to allow his daughter the freedom of expression but to piss my mother off more than I have ever seen before. This was during their very messy divorce and shortly after my sister and I moved out with her into a teeny apartment. What better way to set a time bomb than go behind her back, and get her young, angst ridden daughter a rather large tattoo. It was a design I hand crafted, inspired by ink on my idol at the time, Ms. Courtney Love. It is an angel placed upon my right shoulder. It has much meaning and encapsules that difficult time in my life. To this day, I still love the piece and it represents the first time in my life I felt good about my body and more than ever like I fit within my own skin.
As many with ink will state, once you have one, you want more, more, more, more.
Over passing years I continued to accrue a gallery of art upon my skin. On my 16th birthday, a fairy cradled inside a blossoming flower pedal; an image, placed on the left side of my rib cage, reflective of growth from a dark and deep depression. My most unique and loved came a few months later; film reels round my ankles. Lastly and for fun, daisies on the back of each arm. Each piece has its place within the context of my life.
So, in keeping with birthday traditions of skin ink and piercings, I got my nose re-pierced. I had it for years and recently removed the stud and let it close. After some thought, I went yesterday, climbed up those old brick steps, walked through the doors of Sinkin’ Ink and said hello to Sara, the women responsible for the many holes covering my skin.
It was like a breath of fresh air, the kind that hits you really hard and feels really good deep inside. The smells, the music, the pinch, the watery eyes and most notably – Sara’s laugh, made me feel as though only a few moments had passed, not a few years.
As we age, I feel it very necessary to not block out experiences from our more youthful days, but to embrace them. To reinvent them anew, in a way that supports who we are now, but keeping sacred who we once were.