I am happy to report that I have made it to my two-year canciversary, almost. It will be September 4th when I can say I have lived with lung cancer for two years. I wanted to celebrate with a tattoo for every year. But what should it be? Just Roman numerals? Boring. Boxing gloves for the ongoing fight? Not very good-looking. Butterflies? Hmmmmm. They symbolize rebirth. They are pretty. If you make the body from a semi-colon, it signifies that you are not at the end, but carrying on. Perfect!
I got out my pencil (with eraser!) and notebook and began drawing butterflies. With year numbers. Lots of fairly ugly versions. I finally settled on the semi-colon closed wing one and the open wing one. My friend Jennie suggested weaving flowers between them, and also recommended Let's Buzz tattoo artist Sandy Brudvik. Jennie (US) and her husband Erik (NO) met Sandy (US) and Tomas (NO) while on a layover between the two countries and hit it right off. I had already discovered Let's Buzz on my walks, and this recommendation clinched it.
Sandy, being a very experienced artist who loves butterflies, took me on. She digitized my design, then drew over it with her inputs. She fit the 24 and the 25 for the years inside the butterfly wings, which I thought was perfect. Aren't her flowers nice, too? A couple of days later - ta daa! With room for lots more years of butterflies.
What do you think?
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