The last six months have simply flown by. We got little dustings of snow here and there, but the only blizzard we got was back in January or February, when Big Red and I got buried under 30″ of the stuff. It has rained a lot this spring, however, and maybe that makes up for it. I’ve been working pretty steadily, and helping Big Red and The Nurse plan their weddings. It’s a lot of fun, actually. The month of May, however, has been particularly interesting in the general course of my life.
For The Nurse’s wedding, all the bridesmaids are doing matching jewelry. She and I were discussing this at the end of April, and I bought up the point to her that I didn’t have pierced ears. I wasn’t opposed to them, I said, but I had never had a real reason to have them. Why should I pierce my ears unless I have a reason? I would simply be creating another reason for me to spend money. A wedding though, THAT is reason. So I told her that so long as she gave me about 2-3 months of notice, I would get them done so I could match the rest of the bridesmaids, etc. She let me know the last week of April, and I enlisted Big Red’s help to find a place to get them done. I don’t even notice I have them unless my hair or my shirt gets caught on them. So far they’re fine, and I haven’t had any issues. I do the whole alcohol swab thing every morning and night and today marks a month since I got them done.
My tattoo (seen above) is an entirely different story. Maybe it SEEMS as though I got the ear piercings and went crazy and decided to get a tattoo as well. Not true. I’ve always planned to get a tattoo, but I could never decide on one. there are many things I love, but almost none of them that I would put permanently on my body. About two years ago, one of my sisters asked my cousin to design a tattoo for her: a pine tree with a cross inside of it. My sister never ended up getting it, but my cousin decided that she really liked the pine tree as a symbol of our family (our last name is Woods after all), and got a small pine tree tattooed on her ankle. As soon as I saw it, I knew that was what I wanted. Still, I spent the last TWO YEARS mulling it over. My cousin was supposed to go with me to get it at the end of last summer, but she left for school in Montana before we could get to it. When I found out that she was home for Memorial Day weekend, I informed her that it was time, and we drove out to Silk City Tattoo in Hawthorne, NJ, where she got her first tattoo, to get my pine tree. Mine ended up being more intricate and larger than hers, but there is not a single thing I would change about it. The guys at the parlor were super nice to us, even after they found out it was my first tattoo. There was no teasing, and they made it as painless as possible (I would equate the pain level to scraping your foot on the concrete sidewalk, except for a prolonged period of time, so like a 2-3/10).
Sure, it’s in a place that can only be covered by pants, or tights, or knee socks, but besides being one of the least painful places to get a tattoo and the exact location of my cousin’s, I wanted it to to be somewhere where I could see it every day. I didn’t see the point in getting something meaningful if I was just going to forget it was there. I have no idea how having my tattoo will affect my future in terms of employment, but I do know that it hasn’t affected my current situation at the bridal shop (where many of my coworkers have multiple tattoos).
The effect on my family has been interesting. My siblings and my parents think it’s a little on the large side, being nearly 5″ tall from trunk to loftiest branches, but in proportion to my extra long legs, it doesn’t seem that big. My paternal grandparents, who aren’t surprised by anything anymore after raising 8 children and 20 grandchildren, really like it. My coworkers love it. Other reactions have been mixed, but it hasn’t fazed me so far. I expected many of the reactions I got, and the majority of them were pleasantly surprising.
Will I ever get another tattoo or piercing? Probably not. I have no reason to get any other piercings, and I’m not really interested in piercing anything else, like my lip, eyebrow, belly button, or cartilage, and see no reason to get multiple holes in my ears, either. Tattoo-wise, I can’t say. I may eventually find a quote or other symbol that I want, but I don’t see it as very likely.
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Until next time,
Amanda