No Bed of Roses: A Poem

Powerful line, in sure faith: 'All I know is that a storybook ending has been detected'!

PS Congrats on your 100th hub!

May there be many more, anyway

Thank you for the poem. I especially like the "Life is harder than I expected" line.

Yes, life is harder than what we expected. Congratulation to your 100th hub. Thanks for sharing.

Ebower, this is lovely. My life in reality was harder than I expected. Now I am years old and it is so much more beautiful than I expected. I never had the fairy tales although I read all of them and saw others living life in a crystal palace with a handsome prince.

Now, I love with the King! Once I knew-really knew- God, my life turned into a treasure. I say all that to let you know I appreciate your Hub. It brought a new awareness to me of my blessed life. Have a great day. Joy in Jesus, Hyph.

Ebower: Yes, I'm sure at your productive rate in the recent past (I shouldn't use the word productive; sounds too much like a factory), there are likely to me more interesting and thoughtful hubs from your keyboard soon, :)

Blessings.

Hyphenbird: So you also empathize with Ebower's faith related meditations? Did you also see her interesting hub on Tattoo-friendly jobs? (I saw your comment on the Red color hub, where you mentioned about several young ladies at your church having Bible verse tattoos: it's become popular with young Christians.)

Hello f. I have not seen that Hub, will go there right now. Yes, some of the tattoos the young girls have are beautiful and I feel probably help them remember their path in difficult days. If I saw Love is Kind, Love if Patient, etc on me, I could not be otherwise. Thanks, Hyph.

Hyphenbird:

YW.

Yes. Women so often have an especially deep aesthetic insight, and, for younger women, expressing those insights so often goes together with their developing aspirations in life.

So it's not surprising either that the assertion of the merits of beautiful artwork causes many such younger women with Scripture-informed convictions to want deeply to express it all in the form of aesthetically pleasing, faith related, thought provoking, tattoos.

Ebower:

'I enjoyed reading your discussion on tattoos.'

Yes, it can be a most instructive, not to say enjoyable, subject to discuss, especially when approached in a wholesome way, can't it?

Re: 'I think that tattoos have become more of an art form for younger generations. They aren't necessarily a way to rebell but a method of expressing oneself and helping one to remember things close to his or her heart.'

Well, exactly.

Like, for example, from the standpoint of today, women who, e.g., double-pierced their ears in the late 1970s, when it might have been a quite edgy fashion statement, may now have daughters and granddaughters who are also double-pierced. In the circumstances, hard to regard as remotely rebellious when women get their doubles done these days.

I guess the same can increasingly be said about the ever more widespread practice of getting tattooed, particularly when the person's whole motive may be to reflect a deep-seated faith conviction in an inked, aesthetically positive context.

Blessings.

Well, I guess that expressive words, if they in some way strike a chord in the rationality and even instincts of the reader or hearer, can in due course be something of a catalyst in the thinking of the same reader or hearer.

But sometimes there is a need for caution. Sometimes a 'charismatic' leader can move crowds in a direction which they ought not to go.

On the other hand, a sense of personal responsibility and enhanced adulthood, and a strengthening of what might only be a gradually emerging conviction can be increased by the effect of carefully chosen words. (This also illustrates the sheer value of meditating on Scripture.)

I guess I'm definitely now talking well beyond the subject of whether a person feels s/he would like to get a faith-related tattoo.

PS: In fact, in some ways, maybe the (moderate) gauges of today are no more 'radical' or 'rebellious' than the double piercings that became in vogue 25 - 30 years ago, really.

(If this rings true at all?)

Ty for being patient with my unclear thoughts!

What I guess I mean, too, is: don't worry too much if some of your personal choices, fashion, etc. don't fit in with other people's personal preferences. If you know that you are seeking to honor God sincerely, meditating on His Word, then in a good measure you have the right as an adult to forge your own path.

(There: I hope I haven't sounded too muddled!)

:)

Blessings.

LOL :) (Blush)

Put differently, I suppose, you're free, really free as a redeemed adult to make your own choices in the fear of God, whether it would involve your fashion interest, or gauges, or even ... (purely on your initiative and if eventually aspired to) tattoo.

(Hope it all makes sense!) :)

Blessings.

:) (radiant smile)

PS: I saw on another thread what may be a little clue to where you might - just might - eventually feel part of your freedom lies, in relation to going under the needle:

'if I did, it would be a Bible verse, because that means alot to me.'

Unless you've changed your mind, and are no longer considering it.

To each his/her own. :)

Blessings.

Yes, for many people with a (provisional) tattoo plan for a design that is faith related, such content is seen as far more important than possible options for the placement where the needle might buzz.

(If this makes some sense to you.)

Oh, placement is v. important, too. (I was just referring to overall priorities.)

Re. placement, to some extent, depends if you are strongly a pants person or not, which might have some bearing, too, right?

And if pain is an issue (unless you would use a numbing agent) a placement that was less boney and more fleshy would also be somewhat relevant for where you would allow the needle.

Blessings.

So in the workplace your (skinny) jeans or other pants would be able to cover the tattoo if it had a calf placement, for instance, wouldn't you.

Unless you are thinking of an upper level placement such as upper arm, etc (lower arm would take more effort to cover, of course).

Blessings.

PS: Have you investigated numbing creams? because when using a numbing agent such as Dr Numb, the question of some placements involving more pain than others tends to recede.

In which case (beside the Bible content of the design which is the most important aspect), it then largely boils down to your personal wish of where you really want the tattoo to be. Blessings.

I see...

Because I'm getting the impression that on the one hand you don't want a Bible related tattoo.

And then, on the other hand, that you do ...

(Smile)

Blessings.

PS: Your outlook reminds me of what Scarlett Black in her hub 'Tattoos after 35' says: 'One of the big differences between young girls and mature woman tattooing is the design they get. Many woman who have tattooed themselves as college students regret their choice later in life. ... A more mature woman tends to have less regret as her decision is usually based upon a "meaningful" choice vs. a probably spur of the moment inking.'

So I think your attitude to getting a tattoo would be broadly in keeping with your reflective thinking seen in various of your poems often associated with somewhat older women, really.

Blessings.

You know, with regard to this good poem you wrote, the juxtaposition of roses and thorns in a woman's experience is sometimes reflected even in the sort of tattoo design that some women get. I realize that you yourself would get a Bible verse design, though at the moment doing it is not at all certain; but if did happen, then by your apparently reflective outlook you would, if so, be likely to do it quietly, calmly and boldly. Blessings.

Hyphenbird:

Re. 'Yes, some of the tattoos the young girls have are beautiful and I feel probably help them remember their path in difficult days. If I saw Love is Kind, Love if Patient, etc on me, I could not be otherwise.'

Yes, and I reckon, also that they are a two way thing: their designs (which you also find beautiful) serve both as self-reminders, but also to declare to others where they stand. (My further two cents')

Again, the moral is, don't close your mind to the possibility of getting it. (Isn't it?)

Strictly speaking, possibly getting some kind of observation/apprentice role at a parlor, for personal development purposes, and actually getting a tattoo are two quite different issues, of course.

But since you recognize that a 'deeper meaning' really can be a 'good reason', and you like the idea, then of course you would have to 'be sure', as you say. You need to be sure. And of course if you did ever get a faith related one you it would be as a result of reflecting a very long time beforehand, until YOU are ready, wouldn't it.

The sensible moral to extrapolate, of course, is not to close your mind to it. Isn't it?

Blessings.

Well, you're wrong then! lol

Because you need to do what you want to do.

(With an OPEN mind.) :)

(Smile)

After all, you've even written an article which was rather supportive of tattooing, and so presumably you want to be a bit open minded about it. :)

Blessings.

There. You ARE still open minded about (just possibly) having one.

You see?

:)

Blessings.

I'm smiling, too. :)

Blessings.

PS and I think this thread ties in with some of the other comments which are being made on other of your hubs, too. Blessings.

Also:

'Waves are crashing around the balcony'. Intriguing line, in your poem. Kind of gives the idea of someone prepared to sit quietly and view a wide, coastal panorama, when, instead, the sea's waves get closer and closer and seem almost threatening. Again, with the final line, the moral seems to be to view circumstances with the eye of faith.

'Hyphenbird and f: I enjoyed reading your discussion on tattoos.' 'It might have some deeper meaning for them. I like that; I would definitely have to be sure if I wanted a certain tattoo.'

Well, exactly; enjoyable; likeable, as you say, but you have to be sure.

Blessings.