One thing I love about how the tattoo culture has grown is that people of all walks of life now proudly wear their ink. It is no longer a form of expression confined to a particular group of people. We tattoo lovers are everywhere!
But even with seeing tattoos on all sorts of people, you can’t help but be at least a little surprised when some people tell you they have a tattoo.
And I had one of these surprises a few weeks ago when I met with my school’s sports information director about an internship I have with the department this semester. In that casual, preliminary meeting, my boss, who had learned just days before that I was into tattoos, told me that the assistant sports information director — Jim — had one.
Jim, who will be 60 in June, says he never had a bad impression of tattoos, in general, though he realized that some people let things “get out of hand” with them. But, with that said, he admits he never thought he would get one.
But that all changed as he neared his 50th birthday.
“When I was turning 50, I wanted to do something different,” he says, “and I tried to think of something unique that I have never done before, so I started thinking about a tattoo.”
After much thought, he came up with the idea for a tattoo of a Christian fish (an “Ichthys”) with a cross and the initials “JC.” With his wife coaching my university’s volleyball team at the time, Jim says he took this idea to one of the players who was artistic, and she drew up the design for his tattoo.
Then, on the evening of his 50th birthday, he went to a tattoo shop in Springfield, Ohio. Jim recalls pulling up to the “interesting place” where a “unique looking guy” was out front on his cell phone. Jim says he went into the shop, and the person at the desk said his tattoo artist should be in soon. Yes, that big guy covered in tattoos who was outside on the phone was Jim’s tattoo artist, who went by the nickname “Inky.” Jim says the tattoo (on his left ankle) hurt, and, at times, he squeezed the arms of the chair he was in, all while his daughter enjoyed taking pictures of the adventure.
Then, sometime after this experience, Jim says he figured he should tell his dad how he celebrated his birthday.
“I wanted to call my dad. Here, he’s a pastor, he’s in his early-seventies, and I had the hardest time calling my dad on the phone,” he says with a bit of a laugh. “It already happened, so it’s not like he could have talked me out of it, but just in a conversation I said, ‘I’ve got something else to tell you: I got a tattoo.’ Dead silence!”
His dad was not mad, just shocked. Jim points out how his large family was accepting of his tattoo, to the point that some others followed in his footsteps, at least he likes to think.
“I would venture to say that I was the first one in our family to get a tattoo,” Jim says, “and there has got to be at least a dozen people that have tattoos in our group of 30 or 35 in our family. I like to think I broke the ice.”
Though Jim says he realizes now his tattoo artist may not have been the best, he has never regretted the tattoo. In addition to having deep significance in terms of his upbringing and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, Jim says the tattoo also has family-oriented roots.
He points out that the initials “JC” not only stand for “Jesus Christ” but also for Jim’s initials. Then, his son’s first initial is “J,” and Jim’s daughter’s name starts with a “C.” In addition, his wife, whose name starts with “T,” is represented in the cross. And one day Jim says it struck him that when he covered up part of his tattoo, there was an “A” in the design, which is the first initial of his daughter-in-law and three granddaughters. The only one missing is his son-in-law, whose name starts with “S.”
Jim says he has been thinking about another tattoo, something that would more specifically represent his granddaughters, but he is not sure yet if he will do that or not. But, for now, Jim says he is satisfied being able to share with people about the faith and the family that his ink represents.
I hope you all have enjoyed this story behind the ink. Wherever you are, I hope that you are blessed and that you’ll join me back here next week!
