Tramp Stamp Or Born On Date?

"Even as he hesitated this incident occurred. A man of strikingly noble mien and graceful aspect appeared close at hand, and played upon a pipe. To hear him not merely some shepherds, but soldiers too came flocking from their posts, and amongst them some trumpeters. He snatched a trumpet from one of them and ran to the river with it; then sounding the "Advance!" with a piercing blast he crossed to the other side. At this Caesar cried out, 'Let us go where the omens of the Gods and the crimes of our enemies summon us! THE DIE IS NOW CAST!" --Suetonius "Life of Julius Caesar"

Yes, the picture above is my very new and slightly sore "Tramp Stamp". I couldn't pick a tribal design or the more mundane flower, mythical creature, or butterfly. Instead I chose to use my personal philosophy, "Alea iacta est" or "The die is cast", which is little more than a fancier way of saying "just do it".

The saying was attributed to Caesar as he crossed the Rubicon river to invade Rome on January 9th, 49 BC. According to Suetonius it was in Latin, however Plutarch disagrees and says Caesar said it in Greek. As I can read Latin, but not Greek, I chose the Latin version. Picking the exact phrasing was difficult as well since there are so many versions of the phrase, and some historians claim Caesar never said it at all. I was going to include the date below the lettering, but I was afraid someone would think it was my birthday and you know how protective I am about my age.

I spent the last five years deciding on this tattoo. I know I mull over things too much, but this was a permanent marking on my flesh. I had to decide if I really wanted to grow old with a tattoo, especially one that I would spend the rest of my life explaining the meaning of to people.

The next decision was who would do it. There are many tattoo parlors in Valdosta, but I've yet to see any exceptional work that has been done here.

After studying many people's tattoos, I did notice a woman in the belly dance class I take in Tallahassee having some wonderful work on her wrist and between her shoulder blades, so I finally worked up the nerve to ask her about it. She actually had a lot of really beautiful tattoos, but the ones I admired were done by a tattoo studio right next to the gym. Perfect! Her work had been done by Richard Davis at Fine Art for Life Tattoos, so I went to visit him one afternoon when class had finished.

Then I went off to think about it for another week.

The next week I was ready. I drew out the phrase and the dice for him just to give him a general idea of what I was looking for. He asked for about thirty or forty minutes so that he could get online and check out the history and what a pair of Roman die might look like. Karen (my terrifically tattooed friend) and I headed across the street to get some lunch while he did some artistic research.

When we returned, he had a few drawings for me to choose from. I liked the die from one drawing and the font for the lettering of another, so we just combined them and then chose the shading style. I chose nine for the face of the die obviously instead of the full date. Then we finished the paperwork and he went to prep his equipment.

I was glad I brought a friend, she kept up the conversation so that I didn't focus on how uncomfortable getting a tattoo actually is. I did expect some pain and it felt like razor cuts being made in my skin while he did the lettering. Eventually my lower back went completely numb and that did make it more bearable. Later I remembered I had some lidocaine ointment at home that I use before Fraxel treatments and could have kicked myself for not bringing it to numb up my skin.

I love my tattoo. I did worry before that I would regret it, but no, I actually fell in love with it the moment I got to see the red, swollen finished product.

And my friend was right, the moment you have one tattoo, you then want more. I have a friend in Atlanta whose sister is married to California tattoo artist, Kari Barba. Her work is just unbelievable, so I wouldn't mind having some of her work as well to decorate my back. Or another saying in Latin, you know how I love my Roman history.

The possibilities are tantalizing. This has been the best part of growing older and going out on my own career wise. I don't feel the pressure to conform to a certain image anymore. Years ago I took out my eyebrow ring because it embarrassed my kindergarten aged son. None of the other PTA moms had one and the Teenager has always been a bit of a preppy conformist. What other sort of child would a bohemian mother have? But I did it because I knew it was important to him, thus important to me. If me looking like the othe mommies made his life better, than so be it. I've never been judgemental about people's appearance, but I know that is not the norm, especially in a small, conservative town. Now he doesn't care so much, so it has been wonderful getting to claim myself back from the protective coloration I cloaked myself in for years.

Alea iacta est indeed.