Best Friends and Sisters

This post is a bit delayed, as I got this tattoo almost a month ago, but frankly I was waiting for it to heal to get a better photo.  It's crazy how a tattoo so small has been one of the most irritating.  This coming from a woman who LOVES getting tattoos, but not this one.  The healing process for this tattoo was awful.  It also bled A LOT!  It also peeled and itched much more than any of my other tattoos.  It still feels a bit dry almost a month later.

Anyway....

March 1, 2014 - Authentic Ink Tattoo (Omaha, NE)
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* Location: Right ankle

* Tattoo: Red watercolor Lotus  with Infinity symbol

Story:  Well, as I've mentioned in some previous posts, I will be moving to the UK (this has been delayed to this November).  With this move, I will inevitably be leaving my friends and family behind here.  I have also mentioned my friend Kimber at least once throughout this blog, as well.  She was there for the Triforce tattoo, which was the beginning of my journey of tattoos with my tattoo artist, Spike.  Kimber and I have known each other since we were about 6 years old.  She is my sister, and I'm hers.  We wanted to get a tattoo that symbolized our relationship to each other, and that we'd always be by each other's side.  We had thought about getting a Batman and Robin tattoo (as that is something we happened to cling to - She's my Robin and I'm her Batman), but that never happened.  With my impending move, we wanted to get something done before that happened.  She is a Buddhist (I'm actually not religious at all) and I have been practicing yoga for quite a few years.  I've recently discovered the ideals of Buddhism and like most of the principals behind it.  I don't know that I can completely get behind all of it, or become a Buddhist, but I believe in their base ideals.  The red Lotus flower symbolizes love and passion, so for our friendship/sisterhood, we landed on the Lotus flower.  Mine is on my right ankle and hers is on her left, so that we are always by each other's side.

As you can see, we wanted it to have a watercolor look to it.  Though, honestly I've seen a lot of watercolor tattoos and most of them appear like a small child drew on you and it happened to be permanent (that was a mild exaggeration, because that would be a rather talented small child, but...still).  I just don't think those are meant to be tattoos, but that's just my opinion.  I think my artist feels the same way about that.  I only say this because he had some trouble not "drawing in the lines."  It required effort on his part to do it this way.  

This tattoo, however, just has a bit of casualness to it in lieu of being completely deliberate, or all over the place.  I liked this for our tattoo because our relationship has always been quite whimsical.  We're always getting in to trouble with each other, but at the same time keep each other on the straight and narrow when needed.  We know that no matter what the circumstances, the other will be there to lend support in anyway that it's needed.

Number 7 - "Night is Purer than Day..."

I must confess that though I knew who the author of the quote I chose to get permanently inked on my body was, I did not actually know its origin.  I don't know why I never looked.  Maybe it's because I believed this quote was a piece of beautiful mysterious poetry, so I looked no further.  The quote (or the poem I believed it was) simply grabbed me in a way I couldn't quite describe.  I loved the side by side of night and day and when I found the photo of the skeleton trees, it just came together for me.  Well, a few nights ago, my boyfriend and I were discussing tattoos, how you've come up with what you wanted and what it actually means to you (if anything, because many people don't have a deeper meaning behind their tattoo choices - hence the conversation) and he asked me about the quote I had.  So, I told him the author, Elie Weisel, and read him the full quote, as what I have tattooed is not the full quote (that would be quite wordy).  Anyway, he asked where it came from (not the author, but where it came from) and I realized that I had absolutely no idea.  Oddly enough it took me quite a few Google attempts to come up with the originating source of this quote, which as it turns out, is not poetry.  It is actually an excerpt from a book he wrote.  This book is part of a trilogy...  Finding out the true origination (and meaning for the author) gave my tattoo a whole new perspective.  Don't get me wrong, it still means the same thing to me, but.... I have a new appreciation.

Elie wrote three books: Night, Dawn and Day

"Night is one of the masterpieces of Holocaust literature. First published in 1958, it is the autobiographical account of an adolescent boy and his father in Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel writes of their battle for survival and of his battle with God for a way to understand the wanton cruelty he witnesses each day. In the short novel Dawn (1960), a young man who has survived World War II and settled in Palestine joins a Jewish underground movement and is commanded to execute a British officer who has been taken hostage. In Day(previously titled The Accident, 1961), Wiesel questions the limits of conscience: Can Holocaust survivors forge a new life despite their memories? Wiesel’s trilogy offers insights on mankind’s attraction to violence and on the temptation of self-destruction."

http://www.amazon.com/The-Night-Trilogy-Dawn-Day/dp/0809073641

This quote comes from a piece of literature based on his true experiences through the Holocaust.  Now, you don't know me, so you obviously won't know that I have had an innate interest in the Holocaust since I was a kid.  Finding out that this quote comes from the words of someone who endured such struggle simply brings a whole new meaning to my tattoo for me.  My tattoo for me symbolized my poetic successes and struggles, as well as some of my life's struggles.  I liked the idea of night and day over the skeleton trees, because people normally associate skeletons simply with darkness and death, but in my tattoo, I believe it symbolizes not the end, but the beginning of something new.  Things have not come to an end simply because the sun has set, the moon comes out and shines a new light.  Everything is reborn and nothing simply ends.  Things merely change.

I have not read the books yet, but fully intend to.  Everything appears to happen for a reason, yes?