Sunrise at Waimea Bay

Below are some bonus photos of my sisters and I with our new tattoos! We wanted to get tattoos together – and they wanted ink souvenirs from their trip. I also wanted to have a permanent and forever reminder of this time in my life living in Hawaii.

“I must be a mermaid… I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.”

I got a little notebook that has this saying, as well as a watercolor mermaid, on its cover. It contains a few beautiful illustrations alongside quotations on its lined pages. It was something I wanted as a reward for going through with getting my shell tattoo (pictured above!), and as a reminder to avoid shallow or fearful living.

Because while I feel like that saying does describe me – the fear of a shallow existence – I do sometimes hesitate at great depths. AKA – on the edge of cliffs or at the thought of making a particularly bold decision. Or before encountering needles 😉

But when I did eventually leap off the cliffs at Waimea (after a few tense minutes and some encouragement from Christian) and lie down on the sterilized bed and breathe through the light pain of a small rib tattoo – I realized that, like usual, a little fear and a thundering heartbeat was worth the memories made. So cliff jumping and getting my first tattoo will both go in my mermaid notebook: just two lines filled out, so far, in its many-lined pages.

One of the quotes on a page in the notebook reads: “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid” – Audre Lorde… An author and words I love.

I’m very happy to have found this notebook right before we went in to get our tattoos, since I do sometimes need little reminders to be powerful even in the face of a little fear.

And the needle hurt a whole lot less than expected. So maybe now I’ll start collecting tattoos like they’re memories or shells.

Just kidding mom!

Sort of. 🙂