... the skin graft man won't get you

Outfit posts have been a non-issue recently, as my whole family has come down with some sort of illness. Baby Boots got a bit of a cold right before Christmas, then I got a little sick, then my husband got super sick, and then Baby Boots and I got super-sick again. I lost my voice completely on Thursday (still taught two classes!) and missed work on Friday. Baby has gone to the doctor a couple of times and is doing okay - just seems to be a bad cold: neither of us have the super-flu, thank goodness!

Anyway, I wanted to write about something that's been dear to my heart for over half my life: tattoos. What are your thoughts, people? Many of my friends, acquaintances, colleagues, etc., etc. have tattoos, including my two dearest friends. Lots of bloggers whose style I admire (Sal, Raquelita, to name a couple) sport at least one beautiful tattoo.

Let me get this out there:

I. LOVE. TATTOOS.

I come from a socially conservative family, to whom the idea of tattoos is anathema. I'm also quite afraid of pain. I don't really think I'll get inked anytime soon, but I've been half in love with the idea since I was fifteen. At that age, when I was first really in love with India and Hinduism, what I most wanted was an OM tattoo. Something like this:

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I didn't know where I would put it, but I loved the idea of having one. Of course, a couple of years later, everyone and their mother had an OM tattoo, so I was turned off the idea.

In recent years, I've thought more and more of tattoos and placement and whatnot. When I first got into walruses a couple of years ago (my favorite animal!), I was really into the idea of a very small, realistic walrus tattoo on my lower back (right side, around where the kidneys would be, I think). But then again the issue is: do I really want a walrus on my skin for life? Maybe not.

I liked the idea of an ancient Athenian owl tattoo (nape of the neck) to kind of symbolize my love for Greece and my husband. It would pretty much be a reproduction of this:

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I didn't find a good version on Google, but a colleague of mine has THE EXACT tattoo that I dreamed of, so that's a bust. 

Because of my studies and my love for Sanskrit literature, I thought of getting a favorite verse or two in Sanskrit to commemorate my Ph.D. Also on my back (for some reason, the right side, middle/lower back is what I'm all about). My favorite verse looks like this:

आलाने गृह्यते हस्ती वाजी वल्गासु गृह्यते |

हृदये गृह्यते नारी यदीदं नास्ति गम्यताम् ||

It's from the Mṛcchakaṭika ("Little Clay Pot") by Śūdraka and it means: "An elephant is to be grasped by the rope; a horse is to be grasped by the reins; a woman is to be grasped by the heart: if that isn't the case, leave it alone." For some reason, that verse has resonated with me since the moment I first read the play my first or second year of grad school. Sigh. Memories. I was really close to getting this one upon defending, but I was pregnant. So, nope.

Finally, my new favorite things in life are cherry blossoms. And I love the idea of getting the image of cherry blossoms inked on my body (don't know where yet). Something like this?

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I love the rich, pink color on this style. And I love the juxtaposition of flower with branch: I would definitely want that.

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I love the delicacy of this. But I like the idea of starker contrast: dark brown branches, dark pink blossoms. Color of the top one, aesthetic of the bottom? I don't know. Some ideas.

I don't know why the idea of a tattoo appeals to me so much. I like the idea of committing to something so strongly that it's etched on my skin. I love ornamentation, as you all know: jewelry, pretty things - I guess I kind of consider a tattoo a form of really, really permanent jewelry that you really gotta love. 

What do you all think? Do you have a tattoo? Would you get one?