What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?

Looking back on Facebook memories today, I found a tattoo I had wished for 14 years ago. I have had an infinity with fairies since 2001 when I went to a friend’s MLM crystal party and bought a fairy pendant drop. That fairy became the parking fairy for the longest time in all of my cars and that aligned with the law of attraction; the secret of thoughts becoming things and me sending out to the universe that I wanted the best car park I could find. I wasn’t expecting that fairy to pop up today, or the prompt for this blog post, but perhaps the universe is letting me in on good things to come with life being full of magic still.

I went to a Mike Dooley workshop organised by a lady that has become a dear friend of mine. The workshop was all about putting your wishes and dreams into action by making vision boards and putting positive visualisation out into the universe to bring all you want into your life. For me, that parking fairy was the epitome of my initial beliefs into the universe and all that it could bring me. Just believing that I would get the right car park for me was all I needed to be happy when going anywhere, and I would get the most amazing car parks every single time.

Back in 2011, I was going through a rough time with my ex husband and wanted to bring better times to my life. Life was not to change for the better until I met my late husband Steve, but I just had faith that there was something better out there for me. I loved fairies more by that stage, and I had two fairy necklaces and I decided that I wanted one on my skin too. To me, having that fairy on my skin would have meant I had a permanent reminder that I could bring good again to my life and beautiful things can come from pain, no matter how vicious the intent behind it or the pain from the ritual of getting the tattoo done to recognise the meaning behind it permanently in your life.

Fairies had become symbolic to me of the magic and miracles that the universe could provide. Even through trauma and heartache, there was always a reason to get up and show up. Those symbols of the fairies became my purpose to keep going, no matter what.

I didn’t get my first tattoo until 2012, however, and I ended up choosing the adoption triad on my left wrist and the 30 om on my right wrist. I decided to get those two because I had just undergone a life-saving hysterectomy and I felt I needed a couple of tattoos that deeply connected with my soul as a reward for living. To me, the adoption triad was symbolic about my start to life with birth parents, foster parents, and adoptive parents, and the 30 om was about my fate of coming into a life with parents who ran a tenpin bowling alley. It might seem funny that a Buddhist symbol could represent tenpin, but three strikes in a row give 30 points for the first strike and I always had an affinity with numbers.

I am planning on a new tattoo soon with Norse mythology and the Canberra Raiders integrated within, but now that I have seen my fairy today, I feel I will be getting that done soon too. My fairy means a lot to me still to this day, and I wish for her to be on my skin to memorialise the pain and heartache my family and I have gone through, but also the ability to rise again and bring good things back into our lives.

Tattoos to me are very complex in the reasoning for getting them inked so permanently on my skin and always have a story behind why, what and where I will get one placed so eternally. The Viking tattoo will go on my right upper arm as a half sleeve, and the fairy will go on my left upper arm as a half sleeve. I will have to integrate some other art into the fairy tattoo though. I also want cherry blossoms or a lotus flower somewhere on my back one day.

I love art and I love the meanings behind tattoo artistry. I will forever be content with what I’ve put on my skin so far and I will always be excited for the next tattoo. To be tattooed is often ritualistic in the pain and art that comes from it and often people get them done after going through traumatic times. Trauma doesn’t define us but the way we deal with the pain does. Every single tattoo has a heartbeat of it’s own, and one day soon, my fairy will be immortalised on my body as a representation of a life spent seeking magic and meaning in the mundane and ordinary.

For tonight, I will leave you with this quote:

“Tattoos exude pain and pleasure all at the same time.”

Chester Bennington

Until tomorrow, KT18Ø.