I am ready for a tattoo.

I have always had issues with long-term commitments. How the living crap am I supposed to know that I'm going to feel the same way about something in 50+ years?

I've never been interested in being a homeowner. David and I are not married (though there are a gazillion reasons why David and I have decided to not get married, so don't think I'm just a schmuck). And I don't have a tattoo. I live life day-to-day, unwilling to make super long-term decisions. Like buying a home, getting married, or getting a tattoo.

Until now.

I've been toying with the idea of getting a tattoo for quite some time. I remember going with friends to get inked in high school and early college, and never for a reason more then they wanted a tattoo. They got generic butterflies or 5-point stars. And the whole time I watched them cringe and moan, I knew they were making a mistake, because it never meant anything more.

So I've been waiting on meaning. Experiences that would mold my mind, creating symbolic meanings in things around me.

Now that I'm in mid-twenty land, I think I've grown enough to know more than my then-18-year-old cohorts. At least I'm finally ready to make a real commitment in my life.

So, I'm getting a tattoo. (My mother's going to freak when she sees I chose a tattoo over marriage. Ha!)

I decided some time ago that I wanted a compass. There's the obvious reason - that I'm a geographer - and there's the meaningful reason. The idea that I choose my own path. In everything that I do.

I've been designing this sucker for weeks. It's had several incarnations, but has evolved into a fantastic final product. The smallest in the series of edits above.



With the help of Photoshop, I'm totally seeing (kinda literally) it being stamped forever on my wrist, where I may see it always. I want it off-center and crooked. And I want it there forever.

And since I live in the middle of nowhere, I'm planning a trip to Charlotte for the inking in early June. The first of possibly a string of good long-term decisions.