When I was 13 years old a friend had a bottle of India ink. We used that with a needle and some thread to ink my birth name on my upper right arm. Almost 3 years ago when I started to transition, I knew I'd have to get a cover up tatt one day. This year, in the first week of October, I finally got that cover up. Well the new tatt does cover my birth name, for the most part. You have to look really closely to see it. The cover up is a bird cage, over my birth / dead name, the door is open and the bird is on top of the cage about to take flight. And the bird is the colors of the Trans Pride flag. So this cover up actually tells MY story. Then the first part of December I went in for some light touch up on the bird cage. I asked what he'd charge me for a semi colon. He said he'd do it "for a tip". So I have a semi colon on my left hand. When he'd finished the semi colon, he took down a drawing he had done a week or 2 before. This was of an ear of corn riding a unicycle. He really wanted to have a pic of the "unicorn" for his portfolio. He said he was gonna do it for free for the first person that wanted to get it done. I wanted it when I first saw the drawing after he did it a little bit ago. Well he did the unicorn on the back of my left calf. I had my first tatt, unprofessionally done at 13. And that was the only tattoo I had for the next 32 years. Then I get 3 in 2 1/2 months. And I'm already planning the 4th. I'm addicted.
