Tattoos!

lt;np, sorry. I'll try to be better this year. I just wanted to share the news that I got a new tattoo! Two tattoos! Three total now.

This is the first one I got, back in 2008. It's a sun with a raven in the center. It's my high school graduation present, and a constant reminder to me that I have goals and ambitions and I am perfectly capable of achieving them. And ravens are awesome, and have a lot of good qualities that I should strive for.

This is the second one, but only by technicality. The artist just wanted to knock this one out before starting the second one for the day. It says Aure Entuluva - Day Shall Come Again. It's written in one of Tolkien's Elvish languages, Qenya. I got it as a reminder that no matter what is going on in my life, it's going to get better, and it probably isn't really all that bad to begin with. I have ways of improving my life if things are really unpleasant. If I'm not trying that hard to change it, it's probably not that bad.

I may or may not have broken not one, but two self-imposed tattoo rules. 1) Wait at least a year so you know that you for sure want it. 2) Nothing below the knee, past the shoulders. But, like my tattoo artist said, "rules are meant to be broken." Plus, I have a Elvish tattoo, which I think is awesome. #nerdz4lyfe

This is my third tattoo. I've been planning on getting this one since the day after I got my first one. It's a grizzly bear. Grizzly bears are great. I got it to remind myself of my own expectations of my behavior. I should be reasonably loyal, protective, resourceful, calm, and sometimes a little lazy. Ferocious or affectionate if the situation calls for it. And it doesn't matter that much if I smell bad, because I can catch fish with one paw! (The last one may not apply to my situation, but it's still awesome!)

Sunburn!

I got my first bad sunburn of the summer today. I in no way expected to get sunburned when I left my apartment this afternoon, so I only had sunscreen on my face from my moisturizer.

Anyway, I walked a mile to campus to check my mail, and back. Then I walked to Econofoods and the Co-op for groceries and back. It totals about 6 miles of walking today in the afternoon sunlight. Why didn't I expect to be sunburned? I don't know.

It's not too painful, though. Not my worst sunburn. Not even in the top 5. It looks awful, though. It's on my shoulders, chest and upper back, minus where my tank top and bra straps were located. I'm sure it'll fade a bit by tomorrow, so only my roommate and a friend who stopped by got to see just how bad my sunburn is.

So, wear sunscreen! I'll probably have to get a few moles on my shoulders and arms removed in the next decade because I refused to wear sunscreen when I was younger, and now I'm just thoughtless. Be safe, and prevent skin cancer!

I wear my sunglasses at night

Actually, that's a lie. I do not wear my sunglasses at night. That'd be silly.

I did buy sunglasses today, though. My first pair since 9th grade (I only was able to tolerate them for a few weeks). However, these ones I bought today are actually rather nice. They don't make me look freaky and they fit straight on my abnormally shaped head (my right ear is substantially higher than my left). They don't touch my cheeks, but they also don't push on my eyelashes. Those are pretty much my four requirements for glasses. Oh, I forgot. They were also cheap. : ) $9.99 at Kohls, who is having a sunglasses sale, and I had a $10 gift card. Woot.

In any case, I've been going without sunglasses for far too long. Every time I go outside with contacts in, my eyes are sore and itchy and I just rub them the whole day. Plus squinting causes eye strain, which makes my vision worse. And sun damage can lead to cataracts and other eye diseases, such as macular degeneration, which my mom's mom and my future step mom's mom both have. Unfortunate. I don't want to have surgery on my eyes. Maybe I'll just be blind. It wouldn't be so bad, would it? <.< >.>

I also started wearing sunscreen more this summer. As much as I love sunburn, it's a no-no, especially for freckly folk such as I. I also have light eyes, which increases my risk for sun-related eye diseases. Gr... my genes are predisposed against me. This is not conducive for a long life.

Speaking of genes, I was wondering today if seagulls who live in parking lots will evolve into a distinct species from seagulls. What do you think?

Inked

I love tattoos. While there are plenty of ugly tattoos (for some prime examples, visit http://ugliesttattoos.com), tattoos are such a unique method of body art and self-expression, I find it difficult to stay away from them. I have one tattoo so far. I plan on getting a few more, when I come into some money.
This is my first tattoo. It came into being when I was 12, and busy being an aspiring author (that dream didn't work out so well). I was writing a fantasy trilogy, and one of the Goddesses was named Ravenheat, the ruler of the sun and birds. I was a clever and original preteen nerd, eh? In any case, as I was her High Priestess, I designed this standard for my Goddess, and it stuck with me. The picture is a little blurry, so I will describe it. It is a sun circumscribing a raven. It's a very simple design, I must say, but I like it. A rock is very simple, but if you use it right, you can still knock someone out with it, right? This design, over the years, has come to represent my aspirations. No, I don't want to be a raven in the literal sense. However, ravens are really smart (just look at videos on youtube) and thus I would like to raven-like, in that I want to be intelligent, to shape the world around me, to be creative, and have that aura of power that I find so compelling in ravens. They're common creatures who have achieved their own mythology. I suppose that makes me rather ambitious, and I hope that if I reach my goals, I will have done it in a way that is just.
Which is the inspiration for my next tattoo: a compass.

PS: Can you tell I've been reading fantasy novels? I feel that my language is much more formal and florid than usual. Maybe I am still an aspiring author.