I have a tattoo. It covers much of the underside of my left forearm (the side next to my body). As a reader I understand your natural desire is to see a photo of it, but I’m not going to show you one.
First, a picture doesn’t do it justice. Second, and this is most important, I don’t care what you think of it visually. By posting a picture of it I’d be inviting your comments relating to the art. I don’t care if you think it sucks. I don’t care if you think it roxorz. So you’re not going to see it unless you meet me in person, in which case you can’t miss it. Then you’ll have to tell me to my face that you think it sucks, you won’t have the anonymity the internet provides. Besides, the art while gorgeous, isn’t the point of me getting a tattoo; the point is what the tattoo is and what it represents.
It’s a mushroom. I’ve been contemplating this design for about ten years now. It’s a stylization of a mushroom tattoo my father has on his left forearm. If you know my dad, you know this tattoo.
Mushrooms are actually fascinating organisms. Some interesting facts relating to them:
- In many ways they actually bear more resemblance to animals than plants. For starters they are non-photosynthetic. They take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. They rely on plants not only for their food source but literally for the air they breathe.
- Mushrooms contain MASSIVE amounts of vitamin D, which for a long time was thought to only be found in significant quantities in meat and fish. Good news for vegetarians.
- The part of the mushroom we eat is actually its reproductive structure, which sounds a little freaky when you consider that fungi are closer to being animal than plant.
- Fungi digest food outside of their bodies. They release enzymes into the surrounding environment (we release enzymes into our gut) which break down organic matter from plants into a form they can absorb (also done in our gut). The earth is the mushroom’s gut.
- One of the largest living organisms on earth is a mushroom. It’s about 38 acres in size, weighs about 100 tons, and lives in Michigan. It grew from a single spore, and is thought to have been growing since the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago.
But enough of the useless facts, back to the tattoo. Why a mushroom, you ask? Two reasons:
My dad
I’ve been breathing air for 31 years now, and every day I grow older I find I’m more and more like my father. He is my model for how to work, how to live and how to love. As a direct result of his influence in my life (not to detract from my mom, love ya Mom!) I am the man I am today. He has shown me how to love God, love a wife, love a family, love friends and how to love one’s children. While it may sound corny to you that I would then choose to honor my father’s impact on my life with a tattoo, I couldn’t think of a better way.
And that’s how my desire for a mushroom tattoo started ten years ago, to honor my father. Still, I didn’t just run out to the nearest tattoo parlor and order up a serving of ink and needles. I heeded the advice of friends and family to give the matter serious thought. So I waited, and contemplated. Over the next decade I began to realize that a mushroom would be the absolute perfect image to have permanently affixed to my body for other reasons as well.
My faith
The aspects of the mushroom that relate to my faith are as follows:
- Mushrooms (as well as many fungi) serve as one of the lowest parts in the food chain. They decompose dead organisms into basic compounds, thereby allowing other organisms to begin new life. In many ways, mushrooms are the new life that grows out of death. In me, new life can only grow from within as I die to self.
- The mushroom is just the fruit of a more expansive organism. The actual organism exists underground, often covering a staggering area. When you see me, you see a very small part of the fruit of my life.
- Mushrooms are notoriously difficult to cultivate by force. They grow much better under natural conditions than they do artificially.
I have a tattoo. It’s a mushroom. It represents the indelible mark the two most important men in my life have made upon me: God and my dad.
P.S. — If you live in the Atlanta metro area and you’re looking for a phenomenal tattoo artist who only does custom tattoos, contact me and I’ll give you his information.
