Ink, Touchiness, and "Fuck Yeah Louisiana!"

The state bird of Louisiana is the Brown Pelican.  The state flag of Louisiana has a pelican, too.  The official state nickname is "The Pelican State."

Shouldn't have been surprised when my new tattoo was immediately Facebook-named "Fuck Yeah Louisiana!"

Work in progress. I had to tap out at 2 hours.

While I live in Louisiana, the symbolism of my birdy has absolutely jack shit to do with the state. I like where I live, and I consider myself to be "from" here if I'm from anywhere, but I'm just not patriotic in that sense.

In the SCA, the highest recognition one can receive for service to the organization is induction into the Order of the Pelican.  I was inducted in 2007 and have been thinking about a tattoo to represent not only that accolade but my love for the organization and my appreciation of how much it's meant to me for well over half my life.

Aside from that, I have also long looked to the image of the pelican in her piety (she's piercing her breast to feed her blood to her young) as a spiritual, social, and personal reminder to try to be better, and to find gratification in acts of service even if it's uncomfortable.  It's ok to give parts of yourself away, and I work well with visual imagery... losing a few drops is nothing to her, but it means an awful lot to her chicks. Even though I have the maternal instinct of a stapler, I get that. It works for me. It helps me when shit gets tough.

SO.... I'm trying to take the good-hearted ribbing about my attachment to my state bird in stride instead of rolling my eyes and getting too horribly defensive.  After all, if I am going to brand myself with a representation most of my friends would consider to be a state thing, I should expect that, right?  And anyway- I didn't get it put on for anybody but myself, and that's what matters here.

"I ain't here to impress nobody"-- Achievement Unlocked.