Warrior Princess

Burry but the best I could do.
Posted by Hello

Happy day! I am eating lots of nutritious good food today! I missed food so much. I even had chocolate! Ironically, it is the sugary sweet stuff that tastes the weirdest to me so my staple indulgence is not so appealing anymore. It is strange. I suddenly realised that I haven’t had any caffeinated beverages for a whole week. It is a wonder I am still breathing. So far today is the best day. I am hoping by Monday I will be feeling strong enough to get out and about. How exciting.

I have been thinking a lot about what to write about today. Since my life is quite dull right now I don’t have much to comment on. No work, no play… Dull girl. I definitely don’t want to moan and groan about my cancer shit. I could wax poetic about my past but what? So I ask you all, is there anything you would like to know? Is there a topic you would like me to write about? Any questions, comments, outrage? Keep in mind that my mom reads my blog so we have to keep it clean here or at least in good taste.

Consider it like Blog Theatre Sports. Or an advice column. Or….

I am going to start off with a topic my dear friend P mentioned the other day. Actually, he called me a Tootsies Whore with my leopard slipper shot on Self Portrait Thursday. He suggested that I do a virtual striptease of sorts and blog about my tattoo.

Yes, I have one tattoo on my left ankle. I have wanted to get another one for years and have a place picked out but wasn’t sure what to get. I really felt that it should mean something or signify a rite of passage in my life. I have decided after I have this cancer beat I will celebrate with this tattoo. Until then I just have the one.

When I was 22 years old I had just come out of a very sad relationship where the person that I loved betrayed me in a major way. For a few months I didn’t think I would ever feel better but sooner than I ever imagined I felt better and stronger about myself than ever. That break-up motivated me to be a much stronger and independent person. I decided to celebrate that with a tattoo of a sun. I was pretty confident of my inner female side, the moon, but wanted to illustrate my newfound warrior side.

At the time, 14 years ago, tattoos were not quite as mainstream as they are now but were becoming more popular. I went to a world famous tattoo artist, The Dutchman, who is based out of New Westminster, a 45-minute drive out of Vancouver. This guy was a master of shading and fine line techniques. The only tiny regret I have is that I didn’t go for a more Japanese style tattoo since this is his specialty. I don’t think The Dutchman does small tattoos anymore, only large work that he chooses, so I was lucky to get what I have.

I didn’t tell my parents and just showed up with it one day. They were pretty upset but I was thrilled and have never regretted it. My favourite part of it is that the face itself is black and the rest are shades of grey. I have tried to take really good care of it over the years with sunscreen and such so that it wouldn’t fade or bleed too much.

I find that I often forget I even have it for weeks at a time and then I catch sight of it one day and almost surprise myself. That makes it seem almost new again.