Growing up in a Christian home, there was always a stigma against tattoos and piercings. But I always wanted them. When I was 17, my cool uncle took me to get my ear pierced – and when I turned 18 I got my first tattoo. Of course, it was 2000, so I got the Chinese character for “dog,” the zodiac for my birth year. Being young and not knowing what else to get, my next tattoo was my own logo/initials, i.e., a D² of my design on my mid back.
While I don’t regret those tattoos – they are part of my story – I do regret bad work. That was the case for the next piece. I wanted to get a Chinese character for “judge” since my name means “God is judge” (are we seeing a theme here?). I researched the Chinese symbol and even emailed and got confirmation from someone who could write Chinese that it was the correct choice. Then I went and stuck it on my shoulder with giant hotrod-style flames around it for some reason. The artist botched the stencil and missed the tip of one of the flames under my arm. When I asked him to fix it, he added a janky, free-hand point that wasn’t even properly aligned. Poor work and I was not thrilled.
On to the good part. In 2017 I finally went back for more tattoos. This time, I found a good tattoo artist; I was moving away from black-only work, and I wanted some color. It was also our 10th anniversary, so my wife and I were getting tattoos together. On my right arm, I got a traditional swallow with a banner in its beak that read “Jen”. I know they say it’s bad luck to get your significant other’s name on you, but I don’t regret it :).
