deep

What's it mean? What's it mean?

Yes, Jori and others. Every single pinprick of ink I have on myself means something. Even the Shamu tattoo, but that runs a little deeper than I want to get here. I'll just tell you that it is a reminder of childhood and secrets and lessons I learned about grownups way before I probably should have. And no, I wasn't molested.

The swallow tattoo is pretty self explanatory. It's a bird, and the word mother and some flowers. So the bird is me, and you now how birds take something under their wing. And the word "mother" is me too, but also all mothers because once you are one you have this whole new respect for (read:most) mothers. The tiger lilies are for my grandmother, who grew them in her yard for me because they would always bloom right around my birthday. But she would probably puke if she knew about all this. Then the little clover is because Jake was born on March 17.

The anchor is for Jake and the stability he has forced upon me, and the cherry blossoms are for Philadelphia. We kinda get the shaft because DC steals all of our cherry blossom thunder but our whole town is pink for about a month in the spring. Also, my grandfather had a crabapple tree with bright pink flowers that matched his pink house (no laughing) and I wanted exactly that when I grew up. So, there goes the pink flowers. The blue one in the middle is like a forget-me-not, just because I've always liked them because they are the only blue thing in nature so they are kinda special. And to break up the pink a little bit, because I'm not so much of a pink person.

I just got that little star on my wrist, too. It is there to inspire me to use my special skills and talents for the good of the people. It's amazing what a girl can get done with nothing but a solid education, a little street smartness, and her own two hands.

This all sounds so damned gay when I say it out loud.