Tattoos

I have two Tattoos. One I have had for just over 3 years and another one I got just a month ago. I can say that they have been an interesting part of my life and have put me in situations I never expected to be in. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

I am going to tell you about my second tattoo first because it had the most relevance to my life now. 

My second tattoo was a lovely combination of long drawn out thought and of spur of the moment impulsiveness. I had been considering getting a silhouette of a sparrow in flight on my wrist for quite some time (since last July probably) and I had decided to get it within the next year, possibly as a reward for passing all my CPA exams. The sparrow was to represent a bible verse that had very special meaning in my life. You can read about it here. 

On May 4th weekend I was in Las Vegas celebrating the birthday of my close friend, Becca. I was also there to attend a wedding of a very dear friend Kiala. Kiala was the best friend of my sister, Katie, in HS and my entire family grew very close to her. Unfortunately with the start of a new business for my parents and my youngest sister and brother still in school, Katie (who was a bridesmaid) and I were the only ones able to attend. May 5th was the wedding and Katie and I spent the day getting our nails done and either getting ready to be in the wedding or, in my case, helping the bridal party get ready. God did some pretty awesome things that day. For example: despite the fact that I had to get from one end of the strip to the other during Cinco de Mayo traffic after not keeping an eye on the time, God gave me a taxi who knew the shortcuts and got me to the wedding exactly 2 minutes before it started. 

The wedding was lovely and both Katie and I were dreaming about what our weddings would one day be like. Katie and I had gone up to her hotel room to rest our feet a bit before the festivities part of the reception was to occur. We had about an hour and a half in between dinner and the later festivities, in which we could gamble or relax. In the 15 minutes we were in the room, Katie had turned to 2 Corinthians 11:2

I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him

God gave her some pretty awesome insights as to what he intended her to be as a bride. Maybe she will blog about it because I don't think I could explain it accurately, especially since she was the one who lived it.

We were quickly joined by the rest of the bridal party and headed down to the Lobby. One girl said "We should get tattoos". I saw Katie get "THE FACE". I had seen that face plenty of times before. Katie had made up her mind about something and it was going to happen. She is an unstoppable force of nature when she has her mind set on something. We had seen a tattoo parlor in the mall next to our hotel during a hunt for food and she knew exactly how to get there. Around 6 or 7 of us headed off towards the tattoo parlor. I don't think anyone but me realized Katie was serious and that she intended to get a tattoo. I kept on saying to myself "naaahhh Katie doesn't want a tattoo" but then I would look at her face and say to her "Are we really doing this?" to which she would reply "yup". I don't know if this is true but I don't think even she realized that she was getting a tattoo. It had become a mission.

Katie very quickly had a very nice Tattoo artist showing her different fonts for her tattoo which was to be "2Cor11:2" on her hip. They worked out spacings and fonts. He was fantastic, understanding this was permanent and wanting her to have the right font and spacing. Everyone else was mulling about not really being serious and Katie was having hers drawn up.  She looked at me and said "You're getting one too right? I can't get one if you don't. I need to do this with my big sister." Even if I hadn't already decided to get a new tattoo, that question right there would have sealed the deal. I can never deny the "please be my big sister" card. After Katie took a quick break to call Judge and let him know what was going down followed by a quick walk around the mall to pray about it, we paid for her tattoos to chorus of her friends saying "Wait?! BAKER is getting a TATTOO?!"

The tattoos were to be on our right hip where a bathing suit would cover it. Katie laid down on the padded table thing and after some manipulation of the covering for her body so only the tattooed area would show, she got her first tattoo. I don't know if she knows this but since we have grown up sometimes I feel like she is more the older sister than I am. O, we have the typical First born and middle child symptoms, I am a bit over bearing and a stickler for rules where she is more of a free spirit and loud but other than that I feel like sometimes she has more big sister qualities. Maybe it is because I look up to her so much. Sometimes I forget that she is younger than me just because of her conviction on so many things. Most of the time I don't really feel like "the big sister". But there are a few times where I really feel that age difference again and I am a big sister. This was one of those times.

I held her hand while he was tattooing her, reminding her to stay still and caressing her hand. I honestly don't remember what I said to prompt what she said but she looked at me and said "sometimes I just need my big sister's approval. It's like when I quit dance because you did too. I just need it to be a sister thing". I can't tell you how awesome that made me feel. Katie is so strong and independent, to know that at 24 and 26, that I am still a big sister is awesome. It was a great bonding experience.

Katie held my hand as I got three birds tattooed on my hip and we left the tattoo parlor to head back to the wedding. It wasn't until we were texting our other sister, Kristen, that we realized that not only did my tattoo reference my favorite verse but one of our favorite restaurants in Charleston called "Three little birds". Katie also looked up the meaning of "Cor" and discovered that in Latin it means "Heart" and that Cor Cordis was a frequently used expression meaning Heart of Hearts.

The most awesome thing that happened that weekend was everyone wanted to know why I had gotten birds in flight.  Because of this I got to share my story with a ton of people about how God had worked in my life. I got to tell the tattoo artist (who after tattooing Katie and Me heard a lot of Jesus talk haha), people at the wedding, friends who didn't already know the story, and a guy on the plane back to San Francisco (where I was on an audit).

I love my tattoo and it was a great weekend.

Mine is harder to photo cause it curves around my body more

Close up

Katie's just after getting it done

You can see the placement of it on her upper thigh

Sister tattooed hip pop afterwards