My Tattoos

While commenting on my Birthday post, Kim asked about my tattoos.  I thought it woudl be fun to talk about all 5 of them.  They all have meaning.  They're not simple flash designs (not Marvin the Martian or anything).  Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that, but that's not how I roll.  So, without further ado, here are my tattoos, in chronological order:

Verktyg av Gudarna

This is my first tattoo. It's on my left bicep/sholder.  I got it when I was 20 or 21. I designed the image first, and then my artist made it look good. In fact, I conceptualized all of my tattoos first. This is meant to represent the Swedish portion of my heritage. Meant to evoke Thor’s Hammer, Mjöllnir. I also wanted to get the phrase “Tool of the gods” in Swedish under the image. So I bought a Swedish-English dictionary and translated it myself. I came up with “Verktyg pa un guds” or something like that. But my brother wisely encouraged me to find someone who actually spoke Swedish to translate it for me, telling me that I could have the translation wrong, and my translation could mean, “God, you’re such a tool.” So I had to find a Swedish speaker. But where would I go to find a Swedish speaker? Well, Ikea, of course! The nice lady I found told me that I did, indeed have the wrong translation—mine translating to “Tool ON the gods”. Yeah, not what I was going for!! She did, though, give me the correct translation. Suffice it to say, I don’t have the title on my arm—just to be safe.

Passione

This is my second tattoo. This one is on my right bicep/sholder.  I got it a year after my first (so that I could donate blood once before being unable to for another year—my normal habit during my tattoo-receiving days). This one is meant to honor my Italian heritage. It is a roman column with grape vines/leaves, “Passione” (passion in Italian), and the Roman numeral “V” since I’m the fifth son in my family.

Wanderlust

My third tattoo. This one is on my right ankle. The dingy, dirty chain represents “society” trying to hold me down. The bright, vibrant vines represent my nature (see how they grow out of my skin) breaking the hold society tries to have on me. Yeah, I was an idealistic hippie. Still am a little.

Eagle Feathers

My fourth tattoo. I got this tattoo to commemorate the time I spent in La Push with the Quileute Nation.  For my final quarter of College, 9 students and I spent 10 weeks living in the community, helping where we could, and learning about the tribe and ourselves. This experience is what eventually led me to meet and marry Anna, so I’m pretty pleased with the decision to go out to La Push in the first place. Because there were 10 of us on the trip, there are 10 eagle feathers.

Ga

My fifth and final tattoo (for now). This tattoo is to commemorate one of the most important days in my life (other than being Saved by God through Jesus): my wedding on February 17, 2007. The Chinese character is Ga. Anna’s Chinese name is “Ga Man” or “Kaman” depending on how you translate it. And “Ga”/”Ka” is her family name meaning…well, “family”. And we’re both the year of the Monkey in Chinese Astrology, so that seemed fitting.

So that’s it. Those are all of my tattoos. I have been told by my wonderful wife that I cannot get anymore tattoos. Why is that? Well, because this is the next tattoo I wanted:

Anna said no after she heard about this wish.  I have no idea why.  The plan was to put it on my left chest.  And have the name area blank so I could fill it in as needed.  What's wrong with that plan?!  Man, she's crazy.  Ha!

Thursday:
5 minutes on elliptical
15 minutes on stair stepper
15 minutes on exercise bike
50 situps
50 push ups
3.5 miles ran (6.7 mph)
7 miles biked (15.7 mph)
prayed
read the bible
read my devotion
date with Anna

Total:
55 minutes on elliptical
45 minutes on stair stepper
45 minutes on exercise bike
250 situps
250 push ups
4 60 second front planks
4 30 second side planks (each side)
12 miles walked/ran
16.5 miles biked
prayed
read the bible
read my devotion
fasted
date with Anna