My favorite scar is the big 2 inch caterpillar I have on my knee from when I broke my leg during a soccer game and had to have bionic parts put into me. Unfortunately, I didn't make the ch-ch-ch-ch-ch sound when I ran.
I also have good one in the middle of my left eyebrow from when my brother stood above me as I lay on the floor and dropped a coke can on my head. He swears it was an accident. I remember it differently. I blame him for my lack of well shaped Hiedi Klum-esque eyebrows.
The point is that we have physical scars that remind us of the mishaps and agony that have plagued us over the years - the falls, the bike crashes, the cuts and scrapes and scabs picked. Usually they have good stories associated with them. Sometimes they are funny, sometimes tragic, but, good or bad, those scars remind us.
Then there are the mental scars - most of the time more painful than the physical. A girl never forgets the first time she was called fat or any boy that breaks her heart. You never forget those embarrassing moments that make you want to crawl under your bed and never come out or the sad times that make you think there's just no way you can go on in so much pain. You never forget the event that makes you realize for the first time that life is not, after all, fair.
Things that leave scars are bad. They're painful and they hurt, and we're forced to remember them for the rest of our lives.
Why can't we be scarred by the good things that happen to us?
It doesn't happen that someone asks you about the mark on your arm and you say, "Oh that's from when my boss said I was invaluable to the operation and gave me a big raise!" or "That's from when I got an A+ on my final exam and decided I really could be a doctor!"
I have no physical marks on me to show how proud I am of myself that I just survived the hardest, most painful year of my life.
Why is it that we should be constantly reminded of the difficult and hurtful things in life and not have the same reminders of the strength or courage or happiness we've found?
To me, this is where tattoos come in.
Of course, some people get a tattoo just because they want a tattoo. Tweety bird rarely means more than "I couldn't find anything better to get on my bicep and this one was cheap."
However, most tattoos actually mean something. They commemorate something. Even the soon regretted name of your sweetie on your left buttock means something at the time.
My tattoos are good scars of things I want to be reminded of. They remind me that my family loves me unconditionally, that I'm strong, and that I'm beautiful.
Yes, you could say that I should know all those things anyway, but sometimes it's nice to be reminded.
Years from now (or days from now) a phoenix tattoo might remind me that even when I get buried by this mess of a world, I will emerge a better and stronger person.
Sometimes the important stuff is the hardest to remember.
Let the good stuff scar you, too, and find your own way to remember it as often as you can.
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