Tattoos: How I feel, and what I have

Everyone has their opinions on tattoos, whether you're covered in them or you think they're the ugliest things in the world. My opinion? I love them. To me, they are a form of art that you can portray on your body. I believe if you get something that has special meaning to you, and will have meaning to you forever, it's perfectly okay to get them. I know many people just get something because they like it, and it doesn't always have a special meaning or anything- which is fine for them. It's just on your body forever, so I think it should be something meaningful.

(pinterest)

Tattoo: Number 1
I had wanted a tattoo ever since I was probably 16 years old or so. My first one took me about a year to plan out. I saw the Chinese symbol for love when I was at the Navy Pier in Chicago and I loved how symmetrical and simple it was. So that was the first spark for my first tattoo. I also wanted to incorporate a butterfly into the tattoo as well, as ever since sixth grade butterflies have been my favorite animal.

Why a butterfly? Well when I was in sixth grade, one of my classmate's little sister had a skin disease in which she would break out in sores any time someone touched her. It was also called "the butterfly disease". She  passed away when she was only six weeks old. That was the first funeral I had ever been to, and at the burial we let off butterfly balloons in honor of her little soul. The moment I looked up at the sky and saw the butterflies, I was inspired; and that is why they are now my favorite animal. They're so beautiful and fragile, and represent how great change can be- since they come and transform from a caterpillar.

So when I turned 18, I had been a paraprofessional for Special Education summer school in Cottage Grove. My friend/ co-worker and I sat and planned out this tattoo every single day of school when we had free time; to ensure that it was perfect. Once I perfected it, I went and got it done! It didn't even hurt. It felt like scratches kind of. Luckily, it was just on my ankle, so it's not a sensitive spot to begin with. :)

Tattoo: Number 2
In case you didn't know already, I love love. I love friends, and I love family. My life revolves around love! My best friend Kayla and I had talked about getting a "friendship" tattoo for a while. We wanted to get something simple and symbolic of friendship and love. Trevor Hall (our favorite singer/ man EVER) has two tattoos kind of by the collar bone, on the best, by the shoulder (it's a hard placement to explain), and we fell in love with that placement. Visible with a strapless or tank top, but easily hidden with a t-shirt/ regular shirt.

So that was how we decided the placement for that one. We kept it a secret at first, because we wanted it to be a surprise kind of thing. But K let the word slip to our friend Jenna about it, and we also couldn't keep it from our other friend Jaymee. Alas, we decided all four of us should get it. And we just so happened to be planning a trip to KC, MO to visit Kayla one weekend... Perfect timing for the tattoo! It took use FOREVER to plan out the specifics of the tattoo though. Even though it's a simple design, the color, size, placement, style, etc. was a really difficult thing for us all to agree on. Did we want it fancy? Big? Colored? Left side? Right side? Since Jen had heart surgery, we couldn't get it on the left side. So the right side was decided, and since we couldn't think of a color we'd all like, we chose to get it black. We all went in, got them done, and they turned out wonderfully. Each of them are just a tad different than the others too, which is nice.

Tattoo: Number 3

I have always loved foot tattoos. But I never thought I'd be able to handle the pain (that I heard) that came along with it. Since my family is my entire life, and I wouldn't be here without them and their support, I knew that I'd want a tattoo to represent them. I came up with the idea of incorporating all of our birthstones into a tattoo, since we were all born in different months it could be a cool idea. So I toyed with idea of having some simple shape filled with our birthstone colors: a star would be the perfect one. So I knew I wanted five stars, all with each of my parents', my sisters', and my birthstone colors. (Dad: aquamarine, Mom: peridot, Me: ruby, Emilie: emerald, Lex: amethyst). 

Jaymee and I went to LaCrosse to visit our friends, and get the tattoo done! I told the artist all I wanted was those starts and some type of swirls or something to separate them. So I just put it in his hands and had him be creative, since I clearly wasn't doing very well at that part. And MAN, am I glad I let him play with the idea. He did an awesome job of designing the swirls. The best part is he made the stars in order, from biggest to smallest. And he even put the birthstone colors birth order too- which I totally didn't even plan! So it goes biggest to smallest, Dad - Lexi. So amazing. It's definitely one of my favorite tattoos. :) Aaaand I didn't even cry! (I literally told myself it was going to be one of the most painful things ever, so I wouldn't be shocked when it actually would be that painful. It didn't even hurt as bad as I'd heard it would!)

[The only problem with this time was that I had to be alone in the tattoo area; so Jaymee couldn't even hold my hand or anything. Which was dumb.]

Tattoo: Number 4
For the past ~3 years or so, I've always loved the phrase "paz. amor. igualdad.": which means peace, love, equality. And even though I'm artistically challenged, I would always doodle the phrase with each word's coordination symbols. On EVERYTHING I could, I would write "paz. amor. igualdad." with the peace sign, heart, and equal sign under each word. They are three things I like to promote as much as I can. Peace: being at peace with yourself, I'm also a huge pacifist, and just spreading peace among others. Love: this is obvious, as I've said about my other tattoos, that I love love. Equality: treating people the same, accepting people for who they are, etc. Obviously I'm not perfect, no one is, but these are things are try my hardest to spread and encourage as much as possible.

There is tattoo shop here, Tatu Royale, and my friend Casey has worked there for a while. So I met all the workers there, and they're all awesome people. I never got anything pierced or tattooed there though, I just met everyone. But at the beginning of this year, I decided I wanted to get this phrase tattooed before I leave Winona. So I saved up money throughout the year just for the tattoo. I wanted Amado, one of the artists there, to do it for me since he speaks Spanish and I figured we could bond over that ;)

I wanted it to be fancy, but not too busy. But I also still wanted it to be simple. So after months of trying to choose a font, I decided on a cursive font. And for the heart, Kayla suggested doing a heart with a design in it. So I picked one that suited me most: it's leaves/ tree like. This is perfect since I love nature and the Earth. And it's still simple, but also intricate and a dash of fancy to even out the simplicity of the other two symbols. I had decided to get it on my side, because it needed to be vertical. I was planning on just dying and crying from the pain, since I knew the ribs are some of the most painful places to get tattooed.

But I did it. Amado perfected the size, design, and placement. And I DID IT! Eek! It hurt. A lot. But I didn't even cry. My friend Mako came and took pictures for us and she held my hand towards the end in the most painful part. But it is just great. So perfect. I love it. I've received countless compliments on it too, even from people who don't like tattoos! ;) So here it is, tattoo number 4. (Which I just got on May 8th!)

Well folks, there ya go. All about my tattoos and the meanings behind them.

Will I get more? Well I'm planning on it... I have a few more planned still. That I've thought about for at least a couple years now. Once I'm rich (HA!) or something, then I'll eventually get more. If they were cheaper, I'd get lots more for sure. But I have to save up lots o' money for the future ones. And ya know, pay off the school debt that I'm up to my ears. But that's a whole other story...

Do you have tattoos? Do they have special meanings? :)

The Perfect Weekend

Hey all! I apologize [again] for lack of blogging... There's been a lot going on [again], so I haven't really been focused on blogging so much. But I do need to share my perfect weekend story with you all because it's just too much to hold inside!

It was easter weekend, so my friends and I drove up the Twin Cities. My Nepali friend Ravi and Sri Lankan friend Tasha were invited to stay with my family and I for the weekend to celebrate with us.

Friday

We drove up (leaving an hour later than I had wanted... shocking, I know :P) and jammed out to great tunes the whole way. We arrived to my house and were greeted by two new "members" of our family: my sister's friends Khushboo and Maneesha- who are also both from Nepal and Sri Lanka! We then all took off and went to the Mall of America, as Khush and Manee had never been there before. After that we dropped M, K, and E off at home; and Ravi, Tash, and I were off to see Trevor Hall in concert!

We got there early enough where we had time to buy merchandise...and since we were part of the first 100 people, we got to do a meet and greet after the concert! The music was blissfully perfect. I mean, his music is already perfect, but when it's live and you're a part of it? It's a million times better. We danced, drank, sang along...and touched him! He crowd surfed off the stage AND off the balcony of the theatre!!! And I got it on tape! It was perfect timing... I shoved my drink in Tasha's hands and immediately recorded his jump off the balcony. Haha... Words can't describe the happiness we felt after A) touching him on the way (only his hand/ leg, no worries :P) and B) precisely timing the recording of him jumping into the crowd. I also met a guy who was getting a tattoo just earlier that day at the SAME TIME as Trevor! So he was put on the guest list and joined us in the meet and greet afterwards.

{Ravi. Tasha. Mary. Me. Nick.}

We waited in line with these awesome [crazy] girls... and finally got to meet Trevor! I told him I liked his tattoos, he signed my poster, Tash hugged him and had him sign her shirt... It was so great. I really just love that man. So, so much. Nick (tattoo guy) invited us out to the bars afterward, but we ended up losing him in a crowd, so the [crazy, awesome] girls we met invited us to come with them to a different bar! We went; it was fun... Had some good talks with them, etc. Then we dropped Ravi off at his sister's house, and Tash and I went home...where we were greeted by friends and a rabbit. Ha, it was grand. I had seen Trevor in concert before, but even the second time- it was life changing. He is so inspirational and his voice- HIS VOICE! It's so magical. Mmm...

Saturday

Grandma and Grandpa Scott (B and B as we call them) came to town Saturday morning. Em and her friends went down to El Burrito Mercado, where they have authentic Mexican goodies, and they brought back this triple salsa sampler which consisted of medium, spicy, and crazy-spicy salsas. We all gathered around them with a GIANT bag of chips and annihilated ALL THE CHIPS AND SALSA. We were all dying (eyes watering, noses running, etc.) from the intensity of the salsas. It was delicious. We hung out for a while, then all the cousins came over and we had our annual easter egg hunt in the house... Unfortunately, my sister Lexi and Grandma miscounted the eggs so not everyone got the same amount... I ended up with just two eggs. :P Ha, but it was fun nonetheless... It's all about the experience not the material goods. (Even though I definitely stole some of my cousin's fruit snacks... Hehehe) After hanging out with the family, Tash, Khush, Manee and I went to the Nepali New Year celebration to watch Ravi dance and have delicious Nepali food! It was a tad on the boring side due to entirely too much talking and un-organization... but seeing Ravi dance (and meeting a new friend: the cutest little girl who fell in love with Tasha) was totally worth it!

{Happy family: post egg hunt}

{Red: Spicy} {Light green: Crazy-spicy} {Green: Medium}

{Cute little girl who fell in love with Tasha}

After the celebration, we headed off to Northfield for a party with some of my former high school classmates. We got some food on the way, and jammed out to tunes again (of course) in attempts to wake ourselves up for the party. It was about 10pm at this point, so you can see how we were tired. ;) We got there and I ended up realizing I had gone to school with basically everyone there! Ha, it was kind of a weird flashback. We had some drinks, played with bullets, guns, and military things, had a flood in the bathroom, had munchies, watched Archer before passing out around 3am or so. It was great. Totally worth the hour long drive out there!

{Tasha rockin' the chemical resistant military boots}

Sunday

We woke up bright and early to make the trek back home. It was an absolutely beautiful day out, so of course we took advantage of it! We played corn hole, basketball, velcro catch, took a million pictures, and listened to Trevor Hall ALL. DAY. It was so marvelous. We had some great laughs and memories... Really. Mom's side of the fam came over, we had some tasty food and talked. Then the highlight of the day: Americans vs. Asians basketball game. It was EPIC. There was a perfect amount of people: 5 people for the Asian team, and 5 people for the American team. We hardly kept score; got really intense about it; liked to yell things frequently such as, "REBOUND! REBOUND!" or "KOU!" or "AY, AY, AY!" None of us wanted to leave... Tash and Ravi fell in love with my (our) family; we took [literally] 315 pictures throughout the weekend. It was just perfect! Then we headed back to Winona while reminiscing all the memories we had shared and experienced. 

{Happy family in the sun}

~ BLISS ~

I get by with a little help from my friends

This week has been so shitty. I had a paper on virtual child pornography due today, and it was really hard to find sources on it since it's not a very common topic. I was proud when I finally finished it early, went to campus to print it off, then realized it needed to be uploaded to D2L...which is when my internet decided to not work. Aaaand of course the dropbox where we were supposed to upload it to, closed by the time my internet started working again. Ever since freshman year, D2L and I have had a hate-hate relationship. Blechhhh.

So now that it's at least done, I'm slightly less stressed. Although I have a project on chemical dependency due tonight as well, but that won't be that hard. But I have a couple midterms coming up...And mock interviews for my classes... Bla, bla, bla. I'm just so checked out of school. I don't care anymore. It's terrible, I know. But I've been here for 5 years. I'm just done.

Anyway. In the time I wasn't freaking out about my paper, I made sure to have some time to breathe. And how did I do this, you say? Well, by Skyping some of my awesome friends- that's how. Aaaand what better way to remember those wonderful conversations? By taking candid screen shots. ;)

My lovely friends will probably not be happy about these pictures. But guess what? I don't care. Because I love the pictures and they make me SMILE! :D

Kayla and Trevor A.

My novio...Smiling! (Which is exciting since he's been so stressed with work lately!)

Connor (with glasses! ;) haha) and Kayla

Molly and Sam (HAHAHAH. They will hate me for this. Oh well.)

This one's old, but I love it. Alex, Daniel, and Kayla

Thanks to Skype/ Twitter/ Facebook/Blogging, staying connected with people is so much easier! I just love social networking because it's helped me stay in touch with old friends, and make new ones too!

"I get by with a little help from my friends"

xo