Weird, oh so weird.
My life is weird. It’s beautiful, messy, fun, full of glitter and rainbows… but its also got some drama and trauma and cloudy days. But overall the best way to describe it is weird. I LOVE weird. So, I sit down to write this, my first ever blog, unsure if anyone will ever read it, extra unsure if I even want anyone to read it (incoming feelings of anxiety and looming fear of judgement), but knowing that I have a unique story and want to share it. Things just seem to happen to me, in the weirdest ways (pretty sure my mother thinks its because I am too open with strangers and unwillingly invite the weirdos) but I love it! It all makes up who I am and the stories I get to tell… SO, dear reader, I am here to share it with you.
A phrase I am fond of and get to say frequently is, “That’s something I didn’t think I would hear today!” Being in the tattoo industry is even weirder than my life is. People (ehem, me) come up with the weirdest things to talk about, to draw, to be… so I am always being surprised by things. To kick off this blog, I will share one of my recent favorites (without context of course, keeping it weird), “It’s a yucca, muthafucka!” And now this phrase is a constant in my household. Please feel free to work it into your daily vernacular.
… I think it’s nearly impossible to be an artist without suffering from some sort of mental troubles. Mine is mild depression and anxiety. I know so many others who have it much worse, but this is my tiny flag to wave and to work through every day. I decided today was the day to write my first blog entry because I had a rare moment of a quiet tattoo shop all to myself, and it felt right. I went to the Washington/Oregon area last week on vacation with my husband and my best friend and my heart is happy, so I needed to share it. If any of you are dealing with a loss of purpose as I recently had (that’s a whole other blog entry) please reach out, I have some fun things to share that worked for me. Finding that I enjoy taking care of others, and taking time to take care of myself, is what is becoming my purpose. It works out great that my profession is geared around taking care of others and helping people reach their truest self through artistic expression on their skin! A lot of self help books and Ted Talks and and and… will preach Gratitude. This deserves that capital G (much like Montel Jordan’s song, “This is how we do it.” because one of my favorite lines in that song is, “ever since I was a lowercase g, now I’m a big G.”). It’s not always easy to be full of Gratitude and to express it every day as much as needed, but today I choose GRATITUDE. I am grateful for you. If you are a friend, a client, a family member, a stranger… there is a reason you are connected to me enough to read this spastic blog post AND you have made it this far, so I am grateful for you. My life has been a lot of hard work to get where I am professionally and personally, but the hard work wasn’t all my own and I am so blessed that I have everything I need. So I’m gonna leave this weird string of thoughts on that note. Go be grateful for something today. Today I am grateful to my two lovely clients who let me tattoo nerd stuff like Yoshi and the Genie from Aladdin, I am grateful to the amazing shop I work at, I am grateful my husband and BFF didn’t kill me on this trip to Seattle for being too obnoxious in the car… and I am grateful for you. My heart is full and my life is weird.
