If It's Meant to Be, It Will Work Out in the End

I had planned to get a tattoo on my wrist for about a year now. I wasn't completely certain what I wanted, just knew that the location was set.

Pinterest is a really good place to find lots of creative ideas, and tattoo ideas flow hard and fast over there. I'm never going to get a huge piece, nothing on my chest or my back or down my arms - but I did find a couple of small sayings that I liked.

One of them was in Hebrew, and it said: Dodi Li va'ani lo. The translation was loosely I am my beloveds and he is mine. I wasn't sure if that was correct - who wants to rely on Google for something like this? We've all heard horror stories of people getting tattoos that they THINK say something like COURAGE or STRENGTH  or FAT DADDY when they really mean CHICKEN FEET or TACO BREATH.

When I went to Blissdom, I ran into a long time idol of mine, Ellen. I accosted her at breakfast one morning.

You speak Hebrew, right?

( I knew that she was Jewish - I am not THAT bad of a person.) To her credit, Ellen didn't even blink, and she offered to help me. I'd bought a ring at the Handmade Marketplace Blissdom offered, and it supposedly said the saying above - but as I don't read Hebrew, I didn't know.

I also wanted to know how to pronounce it. Ellen was kind and not only told me that it would be better - more accurate - to write the saying in a different way, but she also wrote it out for me phoenetically - and encouraged me to try it again and again - and most importantly, didn't laugh when I completely clobbered it with my total Gentile accent.

But I wasn't convinced that the spelling I had was exactly correct, and so I went to my neighbor and asked her for advice. She told me that what Ellen had told me was right - I never doubted you, Ellen, but you wrote the long form phoenetically and not the way I should have it done (totally my fault!!) and wrote it out for me.

So. It was all up to me.

I went to several - and by several, I do mean several - places around here that do tattoos. I may not look like it, but I'm very much a fly by the pants kind of gal - and I do what feels good. I go with my gut. My inner vibe, if you will. Some places didn't have time to talk to me. Scratch them off the list. Some places were rude. Scratch. Dirty. Scratch. One guy talked to my boobs. Double scratch.

I found one place that I really liked, and I jelled with the artist. I wanted to make an appt, and she indicated that it wasn't necessary - script work didn't take long, drop in when you are ready, price was in line with what I'd estimated, so ok. My husband wanted to go with me, and so we made time on Friday.

We got there and he didn't like the look of the place - for lots of reasons. The artist was busy and told us to come back in an hour. So we did. And then we sat. For another hour. And then we left.

I was deeply disappointed. My husband was not. He most emphatically did NOT want me to use their facility. And so I grumbled about it but worked it out internally. He's a good guy, and his reasons, although not my reasons, were valid and needed to be addressed. I was still disappointed. I'm going away with him next month, my time is rapidly running out for the healing to be completed before beach time. This process had already taken several months. Was this EVER going to happen?

The next day, I asked my niece for a recommendation. She has several tattoos and one that covers most of her back and I knew she'd have the scoop. (Why I didn't do this at first? Because, clearly, I'm an idiot.) She told me who she'd used, and I stopped in to a small office complex very near my house - and fell in love.

I had no idea which artist I'd use, but I asked if the one who had done her (very beautiful, ornate and striking) piece was available. Uh, yeah. His first available is August. Which meant that I'd have to go with an apprentice. Which, for some reason felt funny. But then her artist came in, introduced himself to me, and offered to do it -for markedly less than the first place - the next day, before the shop opened.

Which is a fancy (and so long winded!) way to say that I got this today:

Translated: I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. And, yes, T is totally throwing deuces in the background - he told me to retake the picture to get it in.

Which also explains why I now know who will do my next tattoo, how much it will cost and how long it will take - I just need to figure out where to get it. :)

Comments

[addy]

Too Cool! I like it very much. And a referral is always the way to go on these. There are too many bad examples out there.

[Nicole]

I love it! I can't wait to get mine!

[Brandy]

It's gorgeous!

[Patricia]

Just a little note about the statement you got -- in a Jewish wedding, you are not married until you say that to each other IN HEBREW!!

I'm not Jewish, but my husband is and you want to take a wild guess how long it took me to be able to say the words without screwing them up?? I had my future in laws in stitches in attempting -- I think I might have said something that involves a goat at one point...

Alas, I'm truly married and I got through it. The Rabbi complimented me on it -- but I think he was just humoring me.

Love the piece.

[elizabeth k]

I love it - and that hubby is right there with you!

[Lisa]

Love it! And where are all the tattoo ideas on pinterest? I haven't seen many.

[Angela]

I feel slow and old but are you saying that you got the scripture in phonetically written Hebrew since that is not the Hebrew alphabet (obviously). It's beautiful work. My Hebrew tats are written in actual Hebrew so I've never seen it written that way.

[Katie]

Beautiful!

[Carla]

SWEET!! Love it. I wanna get my husbands name on my ring finger. Someday.... :)

[Karen]

Love it, I'm 50 and just got my first tattoo last October while on vacation with my girlfriend in Daytona, no, I wasn't drunk just had been thinking about getting one for years and now I'm really glad I did.
I was thinking about on my wrist like you, but still deciding on what and where for the 2nd one...everyone told me that they are addictive, so agree...Keep us posted on what you decide.