'And the fire and the rose are one'

If you have ever watched Miami Ink (or the spin offs LA ink or London ink) you will probably have noticed the abundance of emotional sob stories and mid life crises which have inspired the people involved to get inked. Many of my friends, tattooed or not, have mocked the program for just this reason; insisting that getting a tattoo is an aesthetic choice to decorate ones body with a permanent piece of art. I have been inked on 6 different occasions and can say with certainty that my reasons for getting it done each time were different and often not unanimous in themselves. I have had two shockingly bad unplanned tattoos, one pointless tattoo, one fixing up job, one which I loved at the time but seriously needs redoing now that it's 6 years old (if you do the maths I was 16 at the time, oops), and the last is my absolutely favorite because it is something I've wanted for a long time. I won't bother lecturing you about the dos and don'ts of tattoos other than to say- research you tattooist thoroughly and plan your design carefully. Each time I have been inked has been for a birthday celebration. When I was younger, more naive, and also far more stupid, I probably thought I was being a bit rebellious. Now, that I'm older I like to think that instead of just being generic tramp stamp, my newest tattoo is a personal expression of me, the real me- not some fake ideal projected image of me. I'm aware of how corny and possibly generic that may sound to some, but unless you have been inked yourself and had the experience of getting both a terrible and a beautiful piece of body art then you won't know what I mean.

My most recent, 2 week old tattoo, is a partial cover up job of an atrociously inked star I had done on my 17th birthday. Now it is gone and replaced by a rose and a quote from my favourite poem by my favourite poet: T.S.Eliot.

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one."