Beautiful Scars

Finally got it. My first tattoo.

I've always wanted to get one - but budget matters kept holding me back when I was in college. Then soon after graduation I started working in a school - which meant I couldn't get a tattoo (how dumb. blah). So now, finally, I got it, and fuck I'm so psyched!

It's funny how it all came about. I'd wanted to get the tattoo done Ash Wednesday. I'm a sucker for symbolism, so I thought I'd get it done on the start of the lenten season. The design I was gonna get had a very spiritual meaning to me, so I thought getting it on Ash Wednesday would add more beauty to it. I called the tattoo parlor, Sin City Tattoos and scheduled for a 7 PM slot. Just enough time for me to get out of work and get inked. When I got there though, they had a client, so it was either I waited for 9 PM, or re-sched my appointment.

I really wanted to get it done that day, but I had to be a good boy and work on some deadlines that night, so 9 PM wasn't an option. I signed up for a Saturday session instead. They said I should do a little more research on the tattoo design, too, since it's in Hebrew and they've encountered a lot of people accidentally getting tats with silly meanings, just because they didn't really know what it meant (the internet is not a very reliable place, I know! Thank God my name Mikhail is already hebrew-based. My friend's sister reads Hebrew too, and she said it was correct. Whew.)

So Saturday came. My appointment was at 1 PM but I woke up late because I had so much work the night before. Over lunch, after confirming with the artists that I'm still game, but would come by at 3 PM, I nonchalantly mentioned to my mom that I want a tattoo. Haha.

Couldn't hide the excitement as I travelled to the parlor. I was kinda scared, too - anticipating the pain involved in getting one (my brother was so supportive; he shared that his friend fainted while getting a tattoo, and that the wrist was a painful place to get inked). But I was just too excited I guess. I got there, talked with the artists Miah and Joey for a while, and then proceeded with the inking.

The rest, as they always say, is history.

It wasn't as painful as I'd expected. It was more annoying actually, that feeling of having a needle drag its point on your skin. There were times that it was kinda painful, but not to the point that I had to squirm - proud! I can't wait to get my next one. On the same location on my left wrist. and the third on the back of my neck. People think I'm too excited; what they don't know is that these have been in my plans - designs (although they needed to be finalized further), location and all - since college.

Looking back, it was such a beautiful experience. I know it seems like I'm morbid, massochistic or whatever - but seeing the design slowly form on your skin was so otherworldly. It was magic.

People always ask why I got this design for my first tattoo. The dumbest (and easiest to explain) answer is that it's my name. But really, it's more than that. Mikhail is the battlecry of the archangel Michael as he wages war against Satan in the War of Heaven. It's literally a question: "Who is like God?" I am hardly religious - more spiritual, perhaps - but in the face of art I realize that this is where I find Him.

Everytime I see the tattoo on my arm/wrist, it reminds me to ask myself Who is like God? The answer is a double-edged sword as St. Michael's - nobody is exactly like God; therefore I have no right to think that I am better than anyone, or anything for that matter.

At the same time, I think the answer to the battlecry is that we're all made in His image - and in that, we are all destined be great.

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Guys go and visit Sin City Tattoos - THEY'RE FANTASTIC!