Hi friends, this blog post features my two latest tattoos as I got them both on the same day, (it was the first time I've done that but it was fun!). One of them is my third Taylor Swift folklore tattoo, and the other is a quote from Tick Tick Boom, and if you know me, you know that I loved that film so much that I watched it three times in a twenty four hour period at one point, because I was that obsessed, and not just because of my decade long crush on Andrew Garfield resurfacing. If you haven't seen it then you absolutely must - or at least listen to the soundtrack if you're more into music than film, because that's also a masterpiece.
I am absolutely in love with both tattoos and I can't wait to write about them, so let's get into it.
Let's start with the folklore tattoo. This is actually one of the first tattoos I ever planned to get, but inspiration for other tattoos kept striking me, and I ended up getting it as my ninth instead, but I am glad I waited because I went back and forth with the font I wanted it in, and the placement of it for so long, so it made sense to wait until I was certain. It's on the back of my right arm which I love because it says 'go with grace', and because it's behind me, people only see it when I'm physically walking away from them, so I thought that was a pretty cool placement for it.
The line is taken from her song my tears ricochet, which is a track five, and if you're a swiftie, you know that means that it's always the saddest song on the album. In the folklore long pond studio sessions, Taylor says that it's a song about betrayal and karma. It's about how someone can go from being the most trusted person in your life, to the person who becomes your enemy, and they know exactly how to hurt you because they were once your best friend so they know how to do that, and while I have been through that, that's not why I got the tattoo. For me, 'go with grace' is something that I've kind of adopted into my everyday vocabulary since then and since other things I've been through in my life, as it's the way I try to live my life now. If you know me personally, then you've more than likely heard me say it, so as I said, it's taken this long to be printed on my body, but it's been in the works/part of my ideology for a long time. To me the tattoo reminds me to walk through life gracefully, and to leave people better than I found them, whether they're my best friend or my enemy. The original lyric is actually 'I didn't have it in myself to go with grace', but I shortened it because I pride myself on the fact that I do have it in myself to do that in most scenarios, and that's what I try to do in my life - be kind and graceful, but still take no crap at the same time.
It's the first written tattoo on me which isn't in the cute cursive font that I always get - this one is actually in Taylor Swift's handwriting, or at least it is according to the Taylor Swift font on dafont. I absolutely love that it's so different from any of my other tattoos, and I'm glad that I finally decided on what I was doing with it, and settled on a design long enough to get it, as it has been on my tattoo list since the end of 2020.
Moving on to the Tick Tick Boom tattoo - quite early on in the film, I'm pretty sure within the first ten minutes, one of the characters asks their friend to consider whether they're currently letting themselves be led by 'fear or love?' , and I don't know why, but that instantly stood out to me, and I remember getting my notes app open and considering the tattoo already - I hadn't even seen the whole film or, (spoiler), listened to the song, Louder than Words, where that line is featured in the chorus, but it meant something to me instantly. Now that I have seen the whole film, three times, I can tell you that that final song is about trusting someone's actions way more than their words which is the clear meaning from the title, but it's also a massive call to action as the film is set against the backdrop of the HIV/AIDS crisis. So many of the questions that Jonathan Larson had before he tragically died, are still questions that so many of us have today, (why do we refuse to hang a light when the streets are dangerous? [...] why do we follow leaders who never lead? [...] why does it take catastrophe to start a revolution?), and it makes it an incredibly powerful song because so many of the issues are still timeless, and in many ways, the world hasn't progressed all that much in the past twenty years.
While researching the design I wanted for the tattoo, I discovered that Vanessa Hudgens has 'cages or wings?', a lyric from the same song, tattooed on her shoulder which is pretty cool!
Personally, the way that I relate to the lyric is that it reminds me to question the decisions that I'm making in my life, and to make sure that I'm doing things for the right reason. For me, it's also a call to action against my anxiety as it reminds me to quieten my intrusive anxious thoughts so that I get to do the things that I love, without letting my fears get in the way of them. I need to get better at going towards the decisions which scare me the most, as I know that those are the experiences which will help me to grow the most. I have it written in a really delicate spaced out/stretched font on my left thigh just above my knee, which is pretty cute as it'll poke out of the bottom of skirts and dresses in the warmer months, and it's a cute daily reminder for me as I'm getting ready in the morning, for how I want to make the decisions in my life that day, and everyday. It’s the first tattoo which isn’t on my arms or collarbone, so who knows? Maybe there will be more thigh/leg pieces soon!
Both tattoos were incredibly quick - I would say that both were done within the same 45 minutes to an hour, if I had to guess. I honestly didn't feel anything during the 'go with grace' tattoo, potentially because I'm pretty used to having my arms/upper body tattooed at this point, but the tick tick boom tattoo did hurt a little bit more than expected at the beginning of the word 'love', likely because I was nervous due to it being a part of my body that has never been tattooed before, but also due to the nature of the thin, delicate line work with this font, that could've also added to the pain a little bit - but it still wasn't that bad, and it was pretty much over by the time I realised that it hurt!
As always, I've popped this into the 'tattoos' category on my blog, so feel free to have a scroll through that if you missed any of my previous run-downs of my tattoos.
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