My First Ink

by Daniel Murphey
(Texas)

A year's worth of weathering and a few blemishes later...

Leading up to my 18th birthday, my mom was getting really excited about giving me my present: my first tattoo. I had wanted one for so long, and the day had finally come. I had given it a lot of thought, and I wanted it to be representative of me and that which mattered most. I decided on the yin-yang, a very old symbol representing universal harmony, and the symbol of Taoism, the faith I identify with. The yin-yang means so much to me; It represents my general outlook on life, my constant spiritual journey, and the addition of water and fire circling the yin-yang added a note of elementalism to the piece, which made it all the more important to me, being from a Celtic/Pagan background.
On the day of the tattooing, we met at the shop and talked to the artist, who by no coincidence was the same man to ink my mother first. I called up my best friend Walter and told him to drop by to see me getting tattooed, and we hung out before and after talking about what we would want to get. He decided on a piece, but wasn't of age to get it then. When he was done, I was more than satisfied with the work, and we all thanked him. Since then, I haven't looked back, and am glad to show off the beautiful work if the subject of tattoos comes up.