A Bit About Me-My Tattoo

First, I want to mention that today's post has been inspired by Justine Dell. She's been sharing her stories behind her tattoos and I thought I would do the same.

Second, this is another possible template I may go with. Let's call yesterday's the Blue Theme, and today's is the Bubble Theme. I know that the background is black, but it seemed a bit more subdued and I thought perhaps it might be easier to read because of that. I've got a few more templates that I'll be trying out for a few more days, so make sure you keep checking in to vote in the poll.

Now...on with the post!

That pretty little thing you see above has quite the story behind it. I was in college at the time and let me just say that college is when I rebelled the most. I didn't really rebel like most teens rebel, but it was enough for me to classify that time of my life as rebellion. Throughout my entire childhood and early teen years, I was definitely a goody-two-shoes. I never did anything to make my parents worry one bit and I always put everyone ahead of me. Well, when I started my second semester of college, I started hanging out with a different kind of crowd-the Theater crowd.

There's a lot of different sorts in the theater crowd and I was struggling to belong. I changed a lot about myself to fit in in those days. And I fell head over heals for a tall, dark, and handsome Italian boy who wore chains, band t-shirts, and deliciously baggy pants. To please him, I started wearing tight pleather, spiked collars, and a host of other punk related apparel. Well, we dated for a few months and I fell in love. And then he cheated on me, so I dumped him. It was heartbreaking, but the next few weeks were utter hell.

Apparently (and unbeknownst to me), I had developed quite a following while dating this bad boy. Boys who I thought were just my friends started piling around me like ants on a candy bar. One of them even broke up with his girlfriend of four years who he was going to propose to, just to ask me out. I felt like a schmuck. I didn't even want to go to school anymore because I felt like I had to perform and pretend I liked these people more than I did.

So one day, I decided I was going to get that tattoo I had been thinking about for years because it was something I wanted--it was just for me. I hadn't decided what exactly I wanted, but I knew I wanted it to mean something. I'm not one of those people who can just show up at a tattoo parlor and pick a picture off the wall.

My parents were completely against it. Yes, I was nineteen, but I still cared what they thought. I had been raised in a conservative Christian household and they just couldn't see why I would want to defile my body like that. So, I prayed about it and got an answer I wasn't quite expecting. I decided to go with the inscription around the ring in The Lord of the Rings, with one change. Instead of one ring, it says one God. Now, when I explain that to people, I tend to get looks like I'm crazy. But I was going through a lot of stuff during this time in my life and I really felt like I was being attacked. This inscription is a reminder that God is in charge of everything, and even those who attack me have to answer to Him some day.

For those who don't know what the inscription says: One God to rule them all, one God to find them, one God to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

How about you? Any stories behind your skin art?

~Emily White