Geek Tattoos

So last night I got a new tattoo. It's one I have been thinking about for awhile. A Harry Potter/ Hunger Games mashup, inspired by ones I found online and brought to life by the awesome Christina Harris at Donovan's Autumn Moon Tattoo in Anaheim.

I have been a Harry Potter fan since the get go, enjoying the midnight book releases as well as the midnight movie screenings (though I am getting old for those!) And since it is now our wedding theme it seemed doubly important to add it to my Buffy, Lord of the Rings, Celtic and spiritual tattoos I already have. Hermione was always an inspiration to me. A brainy girl with buck teeth who gets to be a heroine? Awesome.

The Hunger Games part is more specific in that I picked up Hunger Games after my fiance lost his job and I was feeling helpless and sad. Katniss reminded me of myself as a teenager I immediately felt for her. Buffy has been my love for the past 15 years, and this will never change, but Katniss brought out empathy and acknowledgement of my life in a way I didn't know possible.

Katniss and I both lost a parent at a young age and took it upon ourselves to keep our families together, even at the cost to our own life, and connection to others. We both shut down our emotions and found it hard to admit love. We both had sweet, blond, kind, and loving younger sisters, little ducks, to take care of. There are even male cats named Buttercup in both our lives. (Ours is from Princess Bride, another matter.) We were both alienated from our peers as a result of this disconnect because of the burden we both felt we needed to bear. (Oh, those boys who love you from afar that you can't see!)

But, as I have been learning since reading these books there are ways to find a path to reconnect and feel love and share it loudly with your family. It's okay to say it, even when you are afraid of losing them, that is when it matters the most. People die, but withholding your words of love isn't going to change that.

And that is my story of my most recent tattoo. You never know the story behind a tattoo until you ask.