I can confidently say that my tattoo is completely healed. In fact, I often forget it's even there except when someone catches a glimpse of it and asks me what it means. Then I remember, oh I have a tattoo on my neck! It's bitter sweet how I rarely get it to see it myself and it's on my body, but at least it means I'd never get tired of it.
Since this was such a small piece, the healing process was over before I even realized it was "healing". My tattoo artist recommended to use a water-based lotion but when do I ever follow the rules. I just used my Korres body butter and the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair cream after I shower
and whenever I remember to. The scabbing occurred the day after, I'm not sure if it's normal or because I have 3x more white blood cells than the regular human, and all in all took around 2 weeks to completely disappear. Now, many of you are probably wondering about the infamous dreadful itching during cellular repair period but for me it was not bad at all. There were lapses of an annoying itching sensations but patting my neck lightly gave me great relief. Now, over a month later, it is 100% healed and I love it more and more.
Like any ink that is in a foreign language, aka not in English, the first question you will get is "what does your tattoo mean?". The manager of the Chinese restaurant that my friend works at made a remark on how my tattoo means force ... and I guess it does, even if I've been telling people it translate into strength. Nevertheless, this simple two stroke figure symbolizes a powerful word, with many interpretations. For one, there is the physical aspect of having body strength which is important in living a healthy life. On the other hand and more importantly, possessing a deeper strength emotionally might just be the biggest factor to success and happiness. Its homonymous definition of force also brings in a spiritual characteristic as I do believe in the fact that there are forces in the world that make certain events happen that are out of our control. Now, one of the most difficult decisions which delayed the amount of it time it took to finalize on this tattoo was the placement. I finally decided on putting it on my neck. The reason being is the fact that the neck connects our head to our bodies; strength of body, strength of mind.
Also, it helps that my hair covers it unless I tied my hair up... or so I thought. Let me just tell you that my mother is the president of the anti-tattoo club. She once said that she would kick me out of the house if I ever got one but you know me. Honestly, I expected to hide this from her at least until I completely move out and she can't do anything about it but clearly that didn't happen. Remember how I mentioned how I often forget that it's even there. Well I had my hair tied up and my mom was sitting behind me and of course, mom's knows and see everything so I got the silent treatment for a week followed by a good scolding, actually more like 3 hour lecture that was very reminiscent of a time-out. I just let her ramble because it'll relief some of her anger and it's not like she can do anything about it now anyways. Like I said in my last post, a tattoo is something you get for yourself so never let anyone tell you if or if not you should get one.
“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
