I'm getting tatted.

GASP!! WHAATT???!!

My brother and I are getting tattoos, probably this week. We've been planning it for a long time and now we're finally gonna do it.

So. I've spent the last couple of years debating whether I really want to have something permanently inked on my body. That's the first thing everybody says when you say you're getting a tattoo. "Are you sure? A tattoo is permanent." Yes, I know that, dipstick. Thank you for pointing it out.

Because of the everlasting nature of a tattoo, it's definitely not something to jump into. So, there are three general questions I've been pondering for the last couple of years.

[1] Do you really want to be an old lady and have tattoos? People always say that like it's a bad thing. My final conclusion is this: If I saw a wrinkly old lady walking down the street with a couple of subtle tattoos, I'd be like, "Sweet! That's one rockin' granny." And I'd probably want to hear her life story because it would probably be pretty interesting.

[2] But still... Are you sure you want to have something permanently inked on your body? If my body was permanent, then maybe or maybe not – I don't know. But I believe in something higher than this life on Earth and as such, my earthly body is only temporary. Within the next 80 years (hopefully), I'll leave this world and my mortal life on earth will have been but a blink in my history. While I'm here, I have but one purpose and that is to glorify my maker. So that brings me to my next question.

[3] Of all the possible markings I could put on my body, what will I choose?

Most people, when they get tattoos, choose something that defines them. Of everything that defines me, Melissa Faith Tucker, the one thing that stands far above the rest is my faith. Above everything else, I am a Christian. God is my beginning, my end, and He is everything in my inbetween. I believe in letting my actions speak louder than my words, and whether or not I preach the living daylights out of somebody, whether or not I even mention my faith to them using words, I want them to know that I'm a Christian.

In the early church, under the reign of the Roman Empire, Christians were often persecuted because of their faith. You can look it up for yourself if you want to know the grimy details, but the short story is it wasn't until around 300 A.D., under the reign of Constantine, that Christians were no longer persecuted for their faith. However, during the years of tremendous persecution before Constantine, Christians were afraid to speak of their faith, and understandably so.

During this time, in order to prevent unnecessary capture and persecution, Christians had secret codes they would use as a means of identifying or acknowledging a fellow believer in Christ without any verbal communication being exchanged. They would often draw a curved line in the dirt, mud, sand, or on the walls of caves and if the other person was a Christian, that person would draw the second curved line, creating the shape of a fish. By doing this, they were secretly exchanging a message that they were fellow believers of Christ and that it was safe to talk about their faith without the fear of being turned in. And if the person wasn't a Christian, it would simply look like a doodle in the sand.

We live in a country that grants us the freedom to believe (or not believe) anything we want, without fear of persecution. However, we don't always take advantage of our freedom to share the Word of God in our everyday lives. So, my tattoo is pretty much my modern day equivalent of doodling a fish in the sand upon meeting someone.

The tattoo I'm going to get is a small ichthus on the inner wrist of my right hand, just below my thumb. This is because in our culture, it's customary to shake the right hand of a person when you meet them. I want every person whose hand I shake for the rest of my life to know that I'm a Christian. I want them to know right off the bat, without any verbal communication being exchanged. I want every person I meet for the rest of my life on this earth, Christian or non-Christian, to know about my faith without the pressure of having to respond to it. My whole purpose on this earth is to glorify God and to be a fisher of men, and I don't care who knows it.

So, that's the general idea behind my tattoo. I'm sure I'll elaborate more in coming days, weeks, months, years, decades... Until then, PEACE OUT!!