Thanks to Facebook’s “On This Day” feature, it was brought to my attention that my latest ink is a year old today. [Clearly it’s time for something new!]
It’s been quite a conversation-starter, this particular tattoo. It’s just line work, but it’s different enough to make people stop and ask, “What is that? What does it mean?”
It says, “anam cara” in Ogham lettering.
An anam cara is a soul friend, a best-friend-beyond-all-description kind of friend, a soul’s home.
So my tattoo says, “anam cara.” But what that ink means is more complicated.
It means that I strive toward the qualities that make a good anam cara, in my interactions with others/with the world in general.
It means that I learned, despite so many things that should have dead-set me against it, to trust without limits. There was no contingency plan. I saw no road that didn’t have this bond-beyond-words, this heart’s ease.
It’s a celebration of a life renewed, of living fully. It marks a vulnerability that was echoed and met with understanding.
It stands as testament to so much else now, just as I am indelibly marked by all that was and is no more.
Today, the lines on my arm are a warning.
melstery.com 