I have two, the more recent, a peace sign that occupies my left upper arm. It is surrounded, and draped with breaking blue ocean waves. It has been 10 years, and I have yet to imagine any single tat that would be more me. I so want to believe in reincarnation, that I might come back as a higher creature, a dolphin. Peace for me is a Siamese twin to love. Not the same, but closely attached - sharing almost identical DNA. No one has ever said it better than the Beatles, "All we need is Love"
Searched my HD for an hour this morning trying to find img with no luck. I will post one soon, cuz I really like this thread. I think tatts are auto-biographical above any other expression - The ones we love.
Sure there are plenty of unrepresentative, regrettable tatts that ppl end up with. These seem almost always to be spontaneous drunken tattoos, or tattoos that are influenced by, or are our expression of someone other than ourselves. Like the story of the guy that gets drunk, and has a rooster dangling from a gallows, tattooed on his upper calf, so he can tell everyone, He has a cock that hangs below his knees, and prove it.
When I told my 5th grade school teacher that I did not understand what it meant, but my dad had the word faith tattooed on his arm, she said, it could be a girls name, but she said, it surely meant faith and explained to me better what faith meant. I remember asking my father the question in that way a kid does when their already sure of the answer. "Is it a girls name or Is It forthefeeling like loyility To aThing We CantSeeButKNOWISTHEREE???" I think it is one of those memories I will retain when I can no longer recall my middle name. A quick slight grin crossed his mouth, and in a tone that said, "I am sorry to have to disappoint you" he said, "its a girls name."
Reading this back there's a bit that sounds a little preachy, or instructional. Not my intention, just sorta thinking out loud as I figure out how it is I feel, and what I think I know.