#BeMoreWitWitWoo

When I got the first one it was going to be the only one.   I didn’t really have a desire to cover my body in ink, just a wish to remember two friends in some way.   To remind myself that life is for living and that tomorrow you could be on holiday and die in a horrific freak of nature called a tsunami.

That is what had happened to our friends Sam and Debbie and in the year after their deaths I needed to remind myself “one life, live it” and so when a friend said she was going to get a tattoo I went too.   Something I wrote about in 2011 :  Tattoos I am not a fan, but.

Four years later and the second one was a no brainer.   Adam Hills (yes from the The Last Leg) offered £1000 to Comic Relief for anybody at a comedy gig who said they would get a Comic Relief red nose tattooed on them.   My hand shot up and within an hour my arse had a nice red circle on it.  Nobody sees it, I forget it is there, but Comic Relief got a grand.   (All about it here:  Full Stop)

That was it, I didn’t have a desire, or a need to get another tattoo.  I was done.

And then Kate died.   Our friend Kate, suddenly died one afternoon.   As a community of bloggers we were rocked.  Shocked.  Devastated.  We had lost one of our own and we were at a loss as to how to process it all.

#BeMoreWitWitWoo was made by another lovely Kate, and we embraced it in Kate’s honour.   We posted pictures of ourselves in swimsuits, with Aperol Spritz, Maxibons.   We shared pics on line that we never would have done before because we could hear Kate saying “just bloody do it”.   Those of us with particularly negative images of our own bodies suddenly had the confidence to stand in a swimming costume and put that picture on the internet.  To wear a bikini for the first time in years.  To even just post a selfie online.

It was our way of remembering our dear dear friend.

So as a reminder of this I thought I might get another tattoo, under my watch strap so only I would see it.  Whereas the tattoo on my other wrist is about living life to the full, this one would be more personal.   It is about me, and how I live that life.   About the smaller things within that life.   Posting the selfie, eating the cake, remembering Kate’s huge smile and don’t give a f*ck attitude.

I thought I would get an owl, wise and all seeing and also playing on the WitWitWoo words.   Subtle.  A very simple line drawing.  I found an image and then thought about finding a tattoo place to do it for me.   For a month I never quite got around to it.

But on our wedding anniversary over the weekend we snuck off for a romantic night away.  In a posh hotel a mile away from home.  As you do.    And then remembered we needed fish food so walked to the pet shop to buy some, as you do.   And on the way back to the hotel I started googling places to get a tattoo.  Finding one, obviously they can’t fit you in when you wander in off the street but they did text me the next day to say “We can see you in an hour”.

During that hour the owl got dumped (sorry owl) and I decided to go with the words.  No explanation would be needed as to why I had a bird on my wrist, people could look at the # and maybe be inspired by what it means.

Which is my plan for everyday.  See it and start the day with that at the forefront of my mind.  A bit like setting a daily goal.   I will see it before I put my watch on each morning as it’s carefully positioned to be under my watch strap where nobody can see it.

A bit like posh underwear, nobody else knows it’s there but you and that makes you smile, makes you #BeMoreWitWitWoo