Something Permanent

For about 6 years now, I have been wanting to get a tatoo. The problem was I couldn't decide what to get. I definitely wanted it to be unique and personal. After a lot of thinking I came up with an idea. I decided to list out all the things most important to me and try to find a common theme. When I was done, I had my tatoo idea. I decided to get the Japanese kanji symbol for "frog". I did this for several reasons.

1. The biggest love in my life is my wife Leilani. Since she is Japanese, I wanted something asian to remind me of her.
2. My second biggest love is my first hobby, guns. I have been using the kanji frog as my avatar on all the gun boards that I frequent on-line for years and it has become my symbol.
3. My third biggest love is a hobby I have not had much time to do lately, but still have a passion for, scuba diving. Frogs are amphibious, so it holds some meaning there too.
4. My nickname in Jr. High and High School was Frog, so it reminds me of my youth.
5. While kanji symbols are common tatoos, I have never heard of anyone using that particular symbol, so it would be unique.
6. I really wanted to stay away from the "evil looking" tatoos like skulls, snakes etc... Those just aren't my style. I'm mostly harmless.

So after coming up with this idea about 9 months ago, I decided to think on it for a while. After all, this isn't something like piercing my ear where I can take it out and it will grow back up in a week. This is permanent. After all that time, I had not come up with a better idea and this one still seemed like the best idea.

So.... this past Saturday, Leilani, Erika (Leilani's best friend) and I drove down to Gastonia to Ink Link and I got it done. It did hurt, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would. It is healing now and from what the artist said, it will heal in about 1-1/2 weeks and completely set within a month. Until then, I just have to take good care of it. Here's a pic.