Heart of Gold
So I went from never seeing a “heart” tattoo to stumbling across two in one day. My favorite part of meeting this woman (tragically I lost her contact info), is that I was with Noah when I walked past this woman on my way into a Starbucks (I’ll explain why I was at that particular location in my next post). She was the first person I stopped cold on the street and asked if she would offer up her story. Something tells me there may be a little bit more to what she said. I’ll leave it to you to interpret as you see fit.
“It is my heart of gold.
All of the patches on my heart are patches I have had on clothing throughout my life. So they make me think about the sweatshirt or the pants that I had, or the things that happened to me that made me patch them up. 
Having a tattoo on my chest hasn’t made a significant impact on daily life…most of the time it is covered up.
Selling Tattooed Skin
Just stumbled upon this on TrendHunter:
“This must be the world’s first transaction of its kind – the selling of a tattoo while still on its owner’s body. Tim Steiner sports an elaborate tattoo of the Virgin Mary on his back which he sold to Zurich gallery owner Jutta Nexdorf for 150,000 Euros or about $218,000. The tattoo was designed by Belgian artist Wim Dalvoye and took 35 hours to create. The new owner plans to exhibit the tattoo three times a year. When Steiner dies, the tattoo would be handed over to its owner. The first exhibitions of the tattoo (and Steiner) will in Singapore and Shanghai next week. The video shows Steiner as a German talk show guest – at the very end, he takes off his shirt to show off the tattoo.”
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained
It feels a tad wrong not to begin with my own personal stories about scars and tattoos, but atlas, I need an underwater camera, and the light needs to be right, so all in good time. Meanwhile, Dan Gudgel, a member of my writing group, told me a story this evening. Here is the first of two stories about his his tattoos.
“I got this one right before I graduated from college, a quote from William Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell. I ran across the book when I first began college. I had been talking and talking about getting a tattoo, and some friends of mine woke me on the day before graduation and said, we got you a tattoo for graduation, c’mon lets go.” We were in Kent Ohio.
“Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.”
I got it because it was one of the first pieces of poetry that spontaneously stayed in my head. I remembered it perfectly from the first time I ever read it, It was hard core sieze the moment, live in excess. My understanding of this piece of poetry has been shifting ever since. I used to think that it was telling me that I really needed to live right at the edge, and that I constantly needed to be about to burn out from going after every whim, as I’ve aged with this thing it’s much more than I am trying to listen to myself and see what I actually want, and go after that.”
Scratching The Surface 