Before and After

Before and after pictures

I got my first tattoo on November 15, 1990, as my seventeenth birthday present (I was a junior in high school). For some time my mother had been asking me what I wanted and after a steady response of, "a tattoo," she conceded and took me to Eric Vondar's tattoo parlor in Chambersburg, PA. Because I was underage, she had to sign off for me to get it. She paid--$90, if I remember correctly--and watched while I got it (the rose tattoo). 

This was BEFORE the tattoo craze took hold in America. I was unique...for a very brief period of time. :) 

The following summer I went to Army Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. At it's completion, I got my second tattoo--a wolf in front of a vibrant setting sun (I will never forget the hot, beating, orange sun of Missouri's summer. Brutal!). The wolf had been my favorite animal since my early adolescent years and continues to be so. There is something lovely in the fact that they are loyal pack animals, but also that there is the occasional lone wolf that never aligns with a pack. They are beautiful and strong and free and wild. 

I became obsessed with tattoos for a spell. I subscribed to a couple of magazines and even did my informational speech (Communications class in college) on the culture of tattoos and how it was shifting in popular culture at that time (1993). I wanted to get a third one but could never settle on what to get and its meaning for my life...and so I never did. But before I head off into the land of the eternal blue sky, I did decide to get these two tattoos, both over 23 years old, recolored, refreshed. 

You see, my life before knowing Zorig was a bit muted, faded, lacking color and vibrancy in some departments. As mentioned before, I am blessed with an incredible family, my professional life has always been rewarding, and I've made damn good friends wherever I go. But my personal love life, before Z, did not have rich, dark hues, or a broad range of colors. I had been living as if in a state of colorblindness. I did not know what I could not see.....before Z. But then his words, his feeling, his pursuit and expression washed over me and my heart. My colorblindness is gone. My life's rainbow is bigger and bolder than ever imagined. So sometimes....you just need the opportunity to recolor your life. I'm digging these "afters"......