You know how sometimes you end up doing the things you say you will never do? I have had that happen quite a few times in my life. I said I would never work in a school, yet here I am working as a substitute teacher. I said I would never get a tattoo, well guess what I did in Ireland when I was studying abroad. I got a tattoo.
I never have had anything against tattoos. I just always felt like I was never decisive enough to get a tattoo, which is probably why I haven’t got another one since. When I was in Ireland, it was so clear to me though that I wanted a tattoo to remember my time there. I spent two months trying to come up with an idea I liked. It needed to be something representative of Ireland, but I was really picky about the design. I preferred the more minimalist style. When my cousin came to visit she suggested the claddagh, which wasn’t a bad idea but just didn’t feel like me (but I love my claddagh ring!) I I wasn’t really a fan of words either, so that ruled out any Irish sayings. Eventually I realized that I liked things that were natural, things that are found in nature. That is how I decided on the four leaf clover.
And yes I do know that the shamrock is the symbol of Ireland and that only has three leaves. I will say that is a bit of a mistake on my part. I was just looking at designs on pinterest and the one I really liked just happened to have four leaves. I didn’t think much about the shamrock piece as I was so focused on finding something I could see being on myself forever. Anyway I will get into this realization a bit more in a minute. For now I want to explain how I got this tattoo.
One of my friends did it. Yep I didn’t even go to a tattoo parlor. My upstairs neighbor did stick and poke tattoos and he was actually really good at it so I completely trusted him. This worried my mom a little bit when I told her about it. I didn’t want to just come home with a tattoo so one day I texted her that I was getting a tattoo. She was very adamant on making sure that he used a different needle on each of us. Now this is the other part. I was really nervous about what my parents would think about me getting a tattoo, so I convinced all of my roommates to get the same one so that I could say it was a group thing. I never even told my dad about it because he was so against tattoos. My mom was the one to tell him.
So the day came during my last week in Ireland that my friend came over to give us our tattoos. He had no idea it was going to be a group thing, because I initiated it. As payment I bought the 20 euros bottle of rubbing alcohol to clean everything. Beyond that we didn’t pay him anything, so we were super grateful to him. Especially since doing 5 of them is a lot of work and takes a long time. I went first since it was my thing. That means mine turned out the best as he put so much work into it thinking it was going to be the only one. It actually didn’t hurt at all. Even though the picture shows me cringing. That is just because everyone told me it was going to hurt the most when he wiped the spot down with rubbing alcohol at the end. And yes I did in fact hug the honey monster the entire time because I really did think it was going to hurt. Every one talks about how they hurt, but maybe that is just propaganda parents spread so you don’t do stupid things like go get a tattoo.
Then my 4 roommates got their clovers. Mine may have also looked the best because my friend squeezed in a touch up session before I headed home, when the other’s didn’t get the same luxury. They all were so cute though. I loved it immediately and had absolutely no regrets. If anything I wanted to get more! Anyway as we were admiring our clovers that was when I had my realization that maybe I should have done the shamrock. I went into a little bit of freak out but my friends knew all the right things to say.
“But the shamrock is representative of Ireland.”
“But the four leaf clover is for good luck!
“But I could justify the shamrock religiously since it stands for the trinity.” (I did in fact watch a lot of Father Mike videos before getting my tattoo.)
“Well now it will be the father, the son, the holy spirit, and Emma.”
That last one was when I knew they were really my people. I was so happy we got these tattoos together. One of them was said, “what if we just got matching tattoos and we just stop talking to each other someday.” And honestly I don’t care. We aren’t as close now as we were then 4 years ago, but that doesn’t matter to me. It is representative of a time when I was truly happy and surrounded by my favorite people. Literally a day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about Galway and my life there. It helps having that little reminder on my ankle. And my family does still joke about me getting a pen ink tattoo, which it was not if you needed some clarity. It was all 100 % safe.
Lately I have been fearing that it is starting to fade. Stick and poke don’t last as long which is why I decided to do it for my first tattoo, but now I don’t want to lose it. I think I may just have to go back to Ireland to get it touched up! You know, I am always looking for an excuse to go back.
This I one of my favorite stories from studying abroad in Ireland. Check out the Ireland tag to see some of the places I went and the things I did while in my favorite country!
The Journal of Wanderlust 