steellegion posted: Ohhh I love it! It looks awesome. That was like my favorite shirt of all time! Lost it though.. | |
ethan6341 posted: I love how solid this one is! And you do look a little unsteady on your feet.... | |
This is my nin tattoo on my left arm. | |
MrSelfDestruct99 posted: WOW.. that spiral on your back is fuckin' awesome.. | |
hctiwt001 posted: Sure is O.O | |
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Another forumite knows this story and asked that I post it here. It's long, it's honest and personal -- and if you aren't into that, don't read it.
20 years ago yesterday I attended a Jesus and Mary Chain concert in Detroit; opening for them was Nine Inch Nails—I came in mid-set. I was 19 and burning out in art school and it was a fucked-up evening fucked-up by interpersonal fuckwittery...suffice to day, one I would have been happy to forget. Except not quite... I came in, slunk against the wall and cold and pissed and looking like something the cat dragged in and ...I was transfixed. It seemed like a good date to get this, my first tattoo. 
There are a lot of NIN songs, through the years, that have resonated with me for one reason or another. Some still do, and others simply remind me of the time they did (and which I am happy not to be living, anymore). When I first heard this one, I sobbed. To understand why I need to tell you a story. You see, I was a first-gen university student. There was the weight of expectations and the weight of culture-shock and the weight of a total lack of understanding by my parents of this different planet, this academia. I had Responsibility to Do The Right Thing and Make Them Proud (even in the face of being, personally, a pretty odd damn duck). I started in art but switched to humanities double majors/double minors, got my BA, I stayed for an interdisciplinary MA... I had plans, potential. I applied for Ph.D. programs; I was accepted into my top choice, but it was without the funding necessary to move a family out of state. I had money... enough to move just me. But I had children, one of whose impairments we were just beginning to plumb the depths of. And I had a clear choice, one I had to make that I considered one that I could not un-make (and I'd better fucking get right the first time). Work to reach my potential as a historian, or sacrifice that so my daughter could have any chance at reaching hers. Let everyone down—my family, advisers, friends still in the field... even and especially myself—or let her down. All or one. My choice was for the one. And as we've learned more and she's worsened in so many ways and the way before us is clearer (but with information comes a lack of room for hope, sometimes) I remind myself that I made a decision. A choice. What happened to her chromosome might have been random, but nothing I could—can—do can be. I was not tricked, I was not trapped, I do not sit around feeling sorry for myself (although I deeply wish she didn't have these challenges and limitations, and I certainly have days that make me wonder if I have the strength and emotional wherewithal to do this), I made a choice. I chose her. And now in addition to that imprint on my heart and mind, it's on my skin as well. Certainly there are other layers of meaning for this line I now have on my wrist... in my marriage there has been some very bad, very trying times—times that are past and that we are stronger for having survived. And yeah, TR, whose music lent me sanity when I needed it, was the screaming I couldn't vocalize, was hope (yes, I said hope) that is only possible after recognizing Things Are Very Wrong and, once recognized, opens a way. Who makes me cry, in whose instrumentals I find peace (in the inner landscapes they invoke), whose own journey was so clearly and painfully mapped from album to album (not the same road I was on, but the two sure ran parallel a lot of the time)... and so when I needed out of the bad places I had built inside myself to convince me of my own lack of worth there was a song, a line, a chord to lead the way, shine a light, kick me in the ass. I am loyal, long-term, to very, very few things... so when I realized that very nearly all of my adult life has had this one—one—constant, I had to honor that. | |
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member IT'S A SOCIAL MORAY!!! 
Joined: 05/09/08 Location: bloggedbyjaye.blogspot.co Posts: 10,529 |
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[quote Mouskawitz][quote ShannonG]
 [quote]Okay, that piece is fucking sweet. =)[/quote] I have that tat too..I like your better! | |
ChaiAnkh99 posted: I love this one! | |
middle upper shoulders Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2010 02:16PM by bluscreenofdeath. | |
bluscreenofdeath posted: Fucking.Best.Ever. | |
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Just got mine today, I know its "The way out is through", just thought Id add 'only'.
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bluscreenofdeath posted:Very nice work! Gorgeous! | |
bluscreenofdeath posted:  Gorgeous!
I'd like to get the lyrics 'and all the black is really white' tattooed on my wrists, but I'm not really sure about it yet. | |
UTTERBEN posted: This is beautiful! <3 | |
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Recently got this done, ironically on the 5th of April (my birthday)
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lisa_zombie posted: This makes me think very bad thoughts. Very nice. | |
lisa_zombie posted: I love it. Very.. sexy, if you will. EDIT: Wow, how long have I been around and I still fuck up posts some times. Fail. Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2010 10:33PM by no44. | |
no44 posted: Well thank you! Yeeeah pretty sure I don't do it right, but hey as long as it works I say it's all good. Haha!  | |
YKWYA posted: Hahahaha My apologies! I had good intentions I promise ! | |
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My first tatoo, made a week ago
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