Janna's Journey

When we were in Nashville i decided to get a little tattoo… this would be my very first tattoo! What makes a 53 year old get a tattoo? Midlife Crisis?? Maybe??

Well let me start off by saying I’ve wanted a tattoo ever since I was little, for whatever reason i thought they were so cool and I knew I would get one someday but my parents were very much against them! i never wanted to disappoint them so I didn’t do it. When I was 21 I had a temporary tattoo on my upper arm when i was on vacation visiting my friend Becky of the grim reaper. It was my first trip traveling without Doug after getting married. I remember Chuck, Becky’s Boyfriend at the time saw it and said if you want a real one I will pay for it today, right here, right now! I was like oh my gosh I would love that, but I was newly married and Doug and I had discussed tattoos and his thoughts of them and how he wasn’t a fan.So I quickly thought about how much he doesn’t like tattoos and what he would think of me and I declined that offer. I actually found a picture of that day! Man I look like a baby here!!

So temporary tattoos were my only option, I don’t think a vacation would go by that I didn’t hunt down a Henna tattoo artist and get one for my trip, It would make me so happy,. I’m sure I’ve spent hundreds doing that over the years and recently I discovered Ink Box temporary tattoos and started buying those because they look even more realistic. But the older I get the more silly it seems to keep spending money on temporary tattoos when I could just go out and get one already!!

But I always thought about that, what If I would of done it? Would Doug really love me any less?? Deep down I was sad I didn’t take him up on it… although now I really am glad I didn’t get one that day because a grim reaper on my upper arm would be so dumb! Lol but my point is I didn’t do it because I was worried about what Doug and my parents would think. So I just thought tattoos were just out of the question for me. I had heard a saying a long long time ago that said, you don’t put a bumper sticker on a Mercedes and i always thought that’s true and so i would think of that every time i was tempted… but you see the older I get the more i realize that my body isn’t even close to a Mercedes so that doesn’t even really apply to me 🤣

For the past couple of years i have seriously considered getting a real one but i always went back to what will my dad think or Doug and now add my kids to the mix! And then i would talk myself out of it, thinking I’m too old to get a tattoo now, what will people think?? So i felt like I’ve missed my window. That’s Kind of a depressing thought.

But also in these past couple of years i have been trying to figure myself out, like really think about my life and the life I’ve been living so far and how much of it i have been doing for other people and not taking into consideration what I Want or what makes me happy. I’ve spent so many years worrying about what others would think of me and what others want of me. So I’ve been taking a step back and asking myself what do i want?? Well one of those things was that i want a freakin tattoo damn it! Lol

Midlife Crisis? Maybe?? OR maybe it’s just me finally doing things I have always wanted to do and growing up enough to finally take action! Am I scared to see my dads reaction when he sees it for the first time, yep! But do I feel like this is a healthy step in my life, that’s a big yep too.

So next time you see someone a little on the older side making what you might think as a weird or wild choice or having a “midlife crisis” maybe it’s more than that, maybe they are on the road to self discovery and are trying to live their most authentic self. I’m just trying to live my life with no Ragrets Lol Xoxo

For those who want to know why i picked this tattoo, there are a few reasons but mostly because when Doug and I text or write each other we almost always end it with xoxo or xoxoxoxoxoxoxo ( i thought that might be too long😂 ) or when either one of us has been busy all day and haven’t texted we will send just a simple xoxo, it’s just a easy way to say we are thinking of each other without a lot of words.

Another reason I’m drawn to the xoxo is because back when the movie Nacho Libre came out the scene when he reads the letter to the nun and reads the xoxo’s I was with Doug and the boys and I don’t think I laughed harder, because I always wrote that but never really thought about if the x was small, it’s a small kiss or the O was big, it would be a Big hug😂 it struck my funny bone and it’s something I quote often.

The final reason why I picked it was because I’m just drawn to it and it makes me happy! One day I saw a cute pink neon sign with XOXO on it and I loved it, so of course I had to buy it! I brought it home and put it in my office, I loved it but I didn’t love that it read OXOX instead of XOXO?? I was a little bummed about it. Haden and Kaiti came over and I was showing them my sign and they started saying OX OX and I was like I know I wish it was xoxo instead, they looked at me like I was crazy, they walked over to the sign and flipped it over!! Yep I immediately felt stupid and we laughed and laughed about it and it’s become a running joke! so for all those reasons I got the cutest xoxo on my wrist which I love!! I always thought my first tattoo would be some sort of flowers on my ankle which is what I’ve ALWAYS wanted … maybe that will just have to be my second one 😉