All About My Tattoos pt. 1

Time to get real about my Ink!

Not the story about my first tattoo. Actually starting with my 4th, this made more sense... read and you'll understand why :) 

Hey hey!!! Happy ….. whatever day it is that you stumbled upon this lovely and educational piece of writing. But, since I’m writing this entry on a Sunday, let me formally say… Happy Sunday! 

For a while now, I’ve been wanting to write a post about my tattoos. I thought about doing a single post mentioning every single tattoo, but then I thought that given my long prose, that would end up being an extremely long post. So… why not divide it by grouping tattoos? Yes! But... that will not be the case here, because I have decided to dedicate an entire post to the most significant of all my tattoos, my I AM MINE tattoo. In essence, this is seriously my favorite tattoo. It is the one that I look at and immediately feel empowered, or at least I am reminded to feel that way. 

I got the I AM MINE tattoo about two years ago in Los Angeles. This is my 4th tattoo, and before getting it I had been playing around with different phrases and little scribbles in my head, because I really wanted a new tattoo but simply wasn’t sure what to get. I would test different things (a lot of sharpie fake tattoos were done at this point) on the different areas where I thought I wanted the tattoo, and I was never fully sold on any. The strong runner up was “Still I Rise”, from the famous poem by Maya Angelou ( I might still get this one, when I feel the time is right). I would always get really excited about it, then put it in the back of my head, and simply not follow through. The day I stumbled across the I AM MINE phrase it was as if I had come across destiny. The experience was completely different. It was a Saturday, and just to make things more perfect, Saturday was walk in day at the tattoo shop I liked, and with the artist I loved! I don’t know what I must have been searching online at the moment, but I came across a quote by Nayyirah Waheed which read “I am mine, before I am anybody else’s”. This quote stood out to me in the way that it meant self love to the next level. Self love with no but's or if's or any type of approval by others. So basically I saw the quote, and I remember thinking that I wanted that tattooed on my body, and I wanted it that same day, like right away. I did not think twice about getting this tattooed. That afternoon I found myself at the tattoo parlor, getting the phrase I AM MINE on my left arm. The experience itself was incredibly empowering. I had a friend with me, but I remember her being on the phone talking to her mom most of the time. This allowed for me to talk to the artist about what those three words meant making the moment really about me, which I loved. 

I AM can be followed by an endless possibility of adjectives. The other day at Soulcycle (I'm starting to think that most of my AHA moments take place in that dark room), the instructor said to think about I AM, and everything that we are and strive to be, while pushing the nowhere going bike on a very steep hill. I though about I AM STRONG, I AM INVINCIBLE, I AM POWERFUL, I AM BEAUTIFUL, I AM UNIQUE… I AM MINE. I seriously took a look at my tattoo during class and was like, yes!!! This is awesome, I am sooo awesome. I honestly wish I would feel that thrill and rush of self appreciation and self love erday, all day! Honestly, we all should feel that way about ourselves always.  

I Am Mine means that it is in my hands to decide how I feel about myself. I Am Mine means standing up for the things I believe in, for the person that I am, and that I want to be without letting others influence me. I Am Mine is a reminder to love me for being me, loving my body for being able to move, jump, run... go to Soulcycle lol. It means looking at a picture of me and not letting myself be consumed by negative thoughts (this happened yesterday actually, and it took great strength to accept that change over time is inevitable but that I am still me, and that I am happy). I Am Mine means embracing me, the things I like, the things I love, the things I may not like that much, and the things I need to work on. I Am Mine is a reminder to work on being the best version of myself that I can be, to take care of myself, to stop being so hard on myself. I Am Mine is a reminder that there is magic in the world, that I am capable of achieving my dreams, and that my life is a learning journey. 

I AM MINE is a reminder to live life to the fullest! 

Remember... Love Yourself Always. 

XO, 

Maritza