GRE and Tattoos

I need to get my tattoos. Hah. Actually I don't. But I've been concentrating on what I've wanted for my next body art venture, and I've come up with quite a few ideas: absolute infinity, a scorpion, a "garden of numbers", a heart, a skeleton's hand, a quotation.

The absolute infinity is simply that mathematical equivalent of those words: the infinity within absolute value bars. The idea came into fruition when my aunt and I were talking about what tattoo to get before I got my first tattoo--the infinity--on my hip which was about 4 years ago. I've been slowly thinking about my next tattoo design. By slow, I mean it's been 4 years in the making. So far I've had many attempts on what the new tattoo would look like except I couldn't completely decide on what. I've scrapped out a bunch of drawings/doodles. This primarily because of my ambivalence which is good. I don't want to be stuck with a tattoo borne out of whim and then look at it many years later and say to myself, "What the hell was I thinking?" So the absolute infinity idea resurfaced when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to put on my wrist. I drew the symbols and liked it. At a glance it looks like it's spelling tool, but it's not. I like it. It's going to be small and inconspicuous--small enought to hide behind a watch and/or a bunch of bracelets.

I once had told someone about that idea. I think it was Michelle. I'm positive it was her, and she said something along the lines of it being sort of redundant. Then it dawned on me that it doesn't really denote redundancy. I guess the literal interpretation would support her opinion. Mathematically, however, it's not redundant but merely a contradiction. I'm happy about that. Mathematically it is "the absolute value of infinity" which translates to quantizing infinity which can then be interpreted as conquering the impossible, which is both optimistic and pessimistic but also purposeful.

|∞|

The next idea is of a scorpion. This is mainly because I was born on October and astrologically I'm a scorpio. The only qualms I have about this is I'm not astrologically inclined. I don't religiously read the horoscope and when I do read it, I don't take all of what it says as true. The part I like is how a scorpio's character is defined. I think that it describes most of what I am and most of what I want to be. So it's me in a sense but not completely. I also don't feel to sure about ascribing to standards that one person (the astrologist) has established. I like to have something that was borne of my own head as a representation of who I am. Granted this sort of arguement could be placed for my infinity tattoo. For that I think, it's representative of my interest in math and my more mathematical more than verbal persona. I chose that as a symbol for it. It's not a universal symbol of mathematical people. It's something I've chosen for myself to represent me. So it's not exactly a "scorpio". The infinity does not scream I'm "mathematical".

As for the "garden of numbers", I've thought of tattooing a gumamela (hibiscus) or sampaguitas (jasminum) on my the back of my right hip. I want it to have some number or chemical semblance. So something along the lines of stipling chemical structures and/or numbers to create a flower. I want that. But the problem is finding a tattoo artist able to accomplish that task. This problem is based on the assumption that tattoo artists are or seldomly mathematically or chemically inclined.

The heart will be small black heart on my feet somewhere or on the back of my ear. Hah. This one is whimsical so it may not be realized.

The skeleton hand is intriguing but may be too morbid or gothic than what I'd like to show. But that aside, this hand is going to be on my hip. It will resemble the hand when one is putting one's hand on their hips. So it's cupping the hip really.

The quotation will be of John Galt from Atlas Shrugged saying, "I swear--by my life and my love it--that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." This is going to be on my right wrist preferably in white ink. The only hesitation is that would I really want something that conspicuous.

So far the only ones I'm certain about are the absolute infinity and the garden. So we'll see. I can't do it this semester because I am still on co-op. So I may have to wait til after vacation and during the fall semester, granted I'll have enough money for it. I should have money for the absolute infinity not so much the garden. Sigh.