Scratching The Surface

So much has happened in the last week…putting me to the test about how true I stand by my own tattoo that states change is for the better. I stand true!

Meanwhile, let me introduce Mim. She is none other than the mother of Noah (see below). An artist, a free spirit, and joyful person. She told me this story while I was in Richmond, at the salsa party she and Chuck hosted in their backyard. Ahhhhh…I miss those warm summer nights.

“Two years ago, on July 18 at 10:15 p.m., I fell.

I was jogging around the block with my dog. It was dark, of course, and the sidewalk was uneven with tree roots breaking through. I fell, dislocated my jaw and broke my arm.

I ended up with a big, heavy fiberglass cast. It was a helluva summer. I felt damaged, and worried that I wouldn’t be able to play the piano (for real, not a joke).

BUT here’s the crazy thing in all this, a month before I fell, my younger sister in California had fallen and broken her hip, and was on bed rest. I’d been on the phone with her every other day.
AND our cousin in San Francisco had fallen a month before my sister and broken her leg. The three of us formed a club- we talked daily, which we hadn’t before, and our relationships became closer.

When my cast was removed, I was fascinated by my scar. The line, not quite straight, with the little white points on either side from the stitches, and the indentation on the side where the long pin had held the bones in place.

I started to think about getting a tattoo around the scar. I looked at a lot of images, thought about what I wanted, but 18 months later, I still had sensitivity in that area of my arm.

While visiting my sister, we both got small purple hearts, me on the arm that had been broken but on the outside. But I still wanted one on the inside of the arm. A few months later, while getting my hair cut, I looked down at my lap, HA! I have TWO arms and thought, ‘do the tattoo on the other arm’.

I am very happy with this newest tattoo. It’s about healing, about being happy, being alive, being aware of all I have to be grateful for, about peace and when I open up to people, they can see it. I love that it wraps around my arm so that people can glimpse it but not see it fully until I extend my arms.