Tattoo Tour?
Bro, you don't have to read this, but it might help you know me better.
So, I’m not the most tattooed person, but you know what? I do wanna kinda have a recap of my own body. Just let me do my thing. I have never regretted a tattoo ever. The good stuff is at the end.
EOTC Lyrics
First tattoo ever. I got this when I was 23 years old, which is a lot later than I expected to get my first one. The lyrics are from a song by Envy On The Coast, “The Gift of Paralysis”. I had a full essay written before I actually went and got it in some shop in Jamaica Ave with my best friend by my side. On the other side of the privacy curtain, some girl was getting her labia pierced. It was a pretty big piece to do for my first one.
The words are written in the handwriting of the man who wrote the song, Ryan Hunter (now known as 1st Vows). I had been a fan since 2006 when a sampler CD fell out of the December 2006 edition of AMP magazine with My Chemical Romance on the cover. I’d go into detail about what this means to me, but all you have to know it’s about existentialism and perseverance. I’ll write about EOTC and Ryan on a different day.
THE 1975 BOX
I’m pretty sure this was my second tattoo ever. It was done in my old co-worker’s apartment and a stick n’ poke. I’m also pretty sure I wasn’t sober for it. I got the box tattooed on me because well, I love The 1975 despite the general public’s opinions on Matty Healy. I don’t regret it at all. She did it with a fresh needle and the ink was poured into a beer bottle cap. No regrets whatsoever, but I did end up fixing it up later on.
ORANGE CARNATIONS
If I’ve got my timeline right, this was my third. I got it in Malaysia and it was dirt cheap and took 30 minutes, but this is probably the tattoo that everyone compliments on the most because it’s my only colored tattoo and the only one on my left arm.
I got this one because of a funny story that kinda explains my family dynamic. My parents got married almost 38 years ago. First thing they did was get into a fight. My mom wore pink lipstick, but my dad knew she loved the color orange and carnations. She was pissed that it clashed with her makeup. My dad is literally the personification of “He’s a little confused, but his heart is in the right place”. I love that story so much because their relationship isn’t perfect, but they love each other despite how brutally honest they are. I think that’s why me and my siblings are so blunt. This family doesn’t pussyfoot around. We get shit cleared up and move on.
MATTY’S HAT
Okay… I know what you might be thinking… “Another 1975 tattoo?” Yes. Fuck off.
I got it for deeply personal reasons. This was the hat that Matty made while he was in rehab while recording my favorite record of his. That record stopped me from falling off the deep end and for him to be so sincere and earnest about everything was inspirational enough to get this dumb hat on me. Honestly, it’s my favorite one. People never know what the fuck it is. That’s okay. As they say… IYKYK.
GO DOWN SOFT SOUND
Alright… this is a little embarrassing now. Yes, it’s another 1975 tattoo. I don’t know if this counts as a separate one, but yeah I’ll count it. Same artist that did the hat, added the words from The 1975’s self-titled track. The first three albums have the same opening lyrics. It gives me an immense amount of peace when I listen to the one from the first album. There’s just something about that song that makes me feel like a deep breath of air after rolling down a window at night.
It turns out the lyrics are about road head. That’s not why I got it, but also hilarious.
28
If there’s one thing that makes total sense to me, it’s even numbers. If there’s anything that went right on the day I was born is that it was on the 28th. One of my best friends had just started tattooing and I wanted them to do this on me. My whole left arm consists of tattoos through their progress as a tattooist. I will always love this one because it was a group effort. My best friend wrote the 2, another friend wrote the 8, and it took like 40 minutes to draw it on my arm. Then, my tattooist went to work. I love this little thing that I often overlook. It reminded of a really good time during a really rough period we were all going through in August of 2020.
Storm Cloud
This silly little guy was my first flash tattoo. This was also in 2020. I think I coped by just getting tattoos. I went with my best friend and the same friend I no longer speak to that wrote the 8 in the 28. This was an exceptionally fun day.
I love the rain. I love storms. Every single year, it has rained on my birthday without fail. As much as I hate that it ruins my plans, it is just something that is a part of me. I cannot sleep without the sound of rain playing. I feel happier when I get to walk in the rain. I think it’s the way it clears the streets that makes rain an introvert’s dream.
SAFETY PIN
This one was done by my very good friend as well. I happen to love the shit out of it. I think it’s kind of your generic emo tattoo (and honestly, I was very into Yungblud at the time), but it was a fun little one. However, my brother’s friend said that he thought it looked like a joint and fuck you, Chris! He’s kinda right.
Leaf Thing
Honestly, I don’t know what this leaf thing is. I just wanted to be a canvas for my friend to practice on and I love it. It doesn’t have meaning, but any time I get to hang out with them is an indication of my love for them. This was their first machine tattoo on me
Turntable
Another stick n’ poke by the very same friend. This one, they personally hate. It’s entirely my fault because I asked them to make the lines as thick as possible out of hubris. Our mutual friend traced the stencil. There’s no close-up picture because they’ve offered to cover it up. I love it because I remember having a really good night that night, but I won’t post it here as it is not a reflection on the work they do now.
1ØØ
This silly little one is a matching tattoo with my best friend. It’s another one by my tattooist friend. My best friend and I have known each other since we were 13 years old and met on the first day of high school. The meaning behind this is so stupid. It’s because we keep things “a hunnid” and the Ø is because I love UnderØath and the symbol has haunted me in the dreams.
We’ve planned on having matching tattoos since we were 18. I cannot believe this was the dumb shit we settled on a whim. I love my best friend.
Matchstick
So, this one was another flash in a shop. It was my first time truly meeting one of my favorite people I work with. I remember working a full day with him and when we were about to leave, I shouted “HEY, does anyone wanna go get a tattoo?” and went straight across the street to the shop. I’ve never met someone who was down for anything on the spot. It was an amazing night. A group of us all went together, but only the two of us got tattooed.
It doesn’t mean anything, like a lot of these don’t, but it reminds me of a time that I was very, very happy.
Flower Bulb
I genuinely think I got this flash because I was two seconds from having a mental break down. So I just walked my ass over to the same shop after work and got this. I think I was having such a hard time and I saw this thing and made up a reason like “think happy thoughts”. Bro, I just wanted more filler on my arm.
Staircase
I straight up got this one during the same session as the Flower Bulb because it was like 2 for $90. I just thought it looked cool.
Dice
This one was done by my friend again. I really love this one.
Have you ever watched Community? The one with Donald Glover? Yes, that one with Ken Jeong. Well, there’s an episode called “Remedial Chaos Theory” and it’s where Jeff rolls the dice so whosever number it lands on, they have to get the pizza. Abed warns everyone to not roll the dice because it create multiple timelines. I fucking love that episode. I do believe that time and space is vast enough for parallel universes to exist.
The show was one of those shows that was really just my comfort show. Plus, it gave me Childish Gambino, one of my favorite artists of all time. That’s all.
Wait, no. I’m Asian and I love gambling. That too.
Planet
I don’t know what the hell compelled me to do this, but I bought a stick n’ poke kit off of Amazon and sat there watching Cosmos and stabbed this piece of shit onto my left thumb. I just really like space, alright? It hurt like hell and I’ve touched it up twice. It’s just slowly fading away from existence, much like how the sun is slowly dying out and will lead us to the inevitable end of the universe.
Butterfly
Dude, this one is another flash. It’s because Harry Styles has one on his stomach and I love him. I also don’t love him because it led me to do two stupid things, this and…
Harry’s House
This. My friend put this on me in a super impromptu visit to their studio. I don’t know why, but it was literally just a spur of a moment kind of thing and my best friend literally was like “ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT THAT?” Yes. I’m sure. It’s too late Harry Styles ruined my life and it’s so embarrassing because if I’m not listening to him, I’m listening to UnderØath and the two could not be more different. Harry’s House isn’t even my favorite album of his.
Lantern
My friend did this one as well, if you haven’t noticed, they have done the majority of my tattoos and they all mark their progress through the years.
This one I really wanted because it was part of their Lunar New Year flash. I love Chinese New Year. It is one of the most important aspects of my life. I used to be embarrassed of my culture growing up, but it took me way too long to realize that I’m super happy to have this kind of richness in my life. Plus, all my friends are always invited to CNY at my house.
Spyglass
This one in particular is extremely important to me. It’s by my friend again. I don’t think I even explained this one properly to anyone.
You see, when I was younger before I even got my first tattoo, I knew I wanted a spyglass on my arm, but it didn’t have meaning. However, it gained meaning after. It mostly signifies my love of science. Neil deGrasse Tyson spoke about this simple fact and it changed the way I saw myself and my place in the universe.
“The four most common chemically active elements in the universe—hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen—are the four most common elements of life on Earth. We are not simply in the universe. The universe is in us.”
That knocked me off my feet. I have always loved the realm beyond our earth. One of my favorite days ever was when I visited the NASA Space Center in Houston. It meant a great deal to me. That’s why I poked a planet onto my thumb. There is just something vital about knowing not only how the universe was created, but what lies beyond what we know. There is an infinite amount of knowledge that we may never know, but doesn’t that just give you a little bit of hope? Like the dice that I got tattoed on me, there may be an infinite amount of parallel universes in which things are not as terrible as we see things in our daily life.
When compared to the vastness of the space and time, doesn’t feeling small and feeble, nothing but a speck of dust in the grand scheme of things… just feel comforting? At the same time, NDT’s words also gives meaning to everything we do on this Earth. We are the universe. As along as we exist, we have purpose and the purpose is knowledge and the ever-expanding understanding of this world. Otherwise, all this is just gasses and chemicals smashing into each other in deep space. Living and dying. We matter because we are made of matter. We give meaning by existing, loving, feeling, reproducing.
Hence, the spyglass, one of the first instruments used to determine that there was more than just us in this universe. I plan on getting words from “The Sky is a Neighborhood” by the Foo Fighters (one of my favorite bands growing up), which was actually inspired by those exact words NDT spoke.
I wish I was better at math. I would’ve loved to have been a physicist.
And that’s all I’ve got until the next one.