Tattoo #2

Above: Testing the design out on Thursday

Fifteen years after my first tattoo, and 9 weeks after turning 40, I've gotten my second tattoo. 

It's been a brilliant whirlwind adventure. An "ECN Tattoo Adventure." ECN stands for Everyday Class Notes, a Grinnell College Alumni community that popped up mid-January. Here's the origin story.

Weeks into the group's existence a classmate said, "I love this group so much that if there was a logo of this group, I'd get a tattoo of it." 

An image flashed in my mind. I took 5 minutes sketching it and posting it in reply. 

I said, "Do NOT get this sketch inked. This is proof of concept."

With a wonderful and weird Grinnellian momentum, today 3 men got this design tattooed on their biceps. One floated the idea of crowdfunding and one alum settled the question by funding all three of them.

The final design:

There was a small amount left over that funded my tiny design.

We got our tattoos done by Scott at Slingin' Ink Tattoos in Grinnell. He's a pretty quiet guy. Before we began, he said, "Wait, someone dropped off something for you all." He pulled out a white bakers box. A Minnesotan classmate who had been in town to participate in a panel the day before, gifted us smiley faced cookies.

As I waited, I frickin' loved this flash awaiting a willing body. (I'm sorry not to catch the artist's name. But that is a thing of beauty.)

My design, like my first tattoo took 15 minutes max.

Note from Future Brandy: I got a ton of "you look great" comments on this photo. I have mentioned this elsewhere, I was feeling great at this time. After a year of a mystery illness (zero energy, dropping weight like crazy), a stool test had uncovered that my illness was critters taking over my biome and eating all my nutrients for me. I was feeling thrilled to have turned the corner... and feeling weird that the slew of "you look great" was coming from weighing less.

Weighing less =/= feeling better.

A few hours later, I let my skin breathe before taking a introvert's disco nap before going back out and people-ing for dinner that night. I'm wearing recently ice dyed pants. 

If you're asking what my tattoo design is and why I have it inked on my body, that's a story for another time/post. It's a favorite to tell in person.