The Scars Remain
Noah has a lot of tattoos..below you will find the story of a Tattoo series. I so appreciated having the time to hear Noah’s story about what had happened during that transitional time in his life, and while this story just skims the surface of the actual experience, it was fulfilling to hear how Noah dealt with the pain of that situation. God speed (and more tattoo stories to come from Noah, so never fear).
“When my mom saw this she said, “But it’s going to be that way forever.”
And I said, “Yeah, it is.”
So it’s a human heart with stitches. It’s about what it’s like to be in a relationship and that come apart and why. It’s about my ex-wife and our experience; I got it very shortly after getting divorced. I actually tried to get it while we were still together, but I wasn’t ever able to get the timing right. I would have to cancel, or the tattoo artist would have to cancel. It wouldn’t happen until I was already separated, so clearly it was really about that. But at that point it was such a horrendous experience…without going into great detail…the experience of ending that relationship and getting a divorce really left me feeling like my heart had been chopped up.
Getting this tattoo was about healing, and is about healing. It’s also about the awareness that when you get injured really badly, emotionally or physically, the scars remain, but you will get better. But you will always have that experience be a part of you. As massive as it was, the stitches are there to show that it is healing, but that it will always be there.
So it’s not a bloody heart with knives coming out of it, but it’s also not a healthy heart. Another piece was that anyone I was going to have a relationship would have to see it…it’s kind of a bummer I guess for them. But it was going to be something that was going to come up, and it was never not going to be there.
The secondary response to it, was a tattoo I was planning to get while still married, but didn’t get till several years later, the Back Off Kitty Cat on the back of my neck. 
Again, I was interested in the visibility of tattoos, and so I liked that it was going to poke out of my shirt all of the time, and people would know, “Hey there’s a tattoo under there.”
This black cat with it’s back arched is the typical cat fair of saying, “Stay Away.” Which is something I felt like I had to do that to people for a while afterwards. So it could be cute, but it also had the meaning of, “Hey, I need some space.”
A few years ago…. I got this tattoo, 
and this was my tattoo to say, “It’s getting better.” I had gone through a emotionally turmochulous storm, but there is a shining star that is visible and is saying, “There is hope.” This is one, hopefully of many, that will appear in the night sky after the storm has gone. It’s funny because people don’t think this is real because it is so intentionally faded and soft. But I really like that the star is in the negative space. So that was my beacon of hope tattoo. Maybe there will be more in that series.
For me, tattoos are about recording history. People come and talk to me about getting tattoos and wonder what they are going to like forever. But it’s not about that. When it’s about recording history, you will have always been that person, you will have always remembered that time, and it’s just a reminder to do things differently or do things the same. So if you’re recording history, you’re never going to regret getting a tattoo.
