Eternity
Besides for a few pretty hearts added up my sleeve, this tattoo is the most recent one I have. I got it about 4 years ago in a small tattoo shop in Silver Spring, Maryland. It spells out the word “Eternity.” One night I was just playing around with language and words when I noticed something special about this particular word. If you pay attention to the hidden instruction “etern”, or E-TURN you can flip over the second ‘e’ and match it up with the first ‘e’ to form the number 8 with the "t" just running straight through the center. The number 8 has long been associated with having magical qualities to it, etc. And we also know its relationship with the infinity symbol--it being the number 8 laying on its side. I found these relationships interesting and decided it would make a cool tattoo design.
The location I chose is no mistake either. I wanted the infinity symbol or 8 to fall on the ball of my shoulder, hence like the proverbial magic 8-ball. Interestingly enough, when Bill finished up my tattoo, I noticed how the tail of the "y" also curls into the infinity symbol which I don't think Bill intended, but nonetheless I like the unintentional result. I like to think of this whole design as rather mystical since it came to me all so suddenly. I was literally just sitting in my bed, playing around with words when it occurred to me what I could do with this particular word.
I'd be lying though if I said I had a grandiose story to accompany this particular one. And quite frankly, it would take an eternity to recall all the events that lead up to me creating this design. It's my entire life so far. So in a short, I think this tattoo just best captures how I view the world. There is always more going on than what is first revealed. Things, situations, and events are forever intertwined and if one pays close attention, one might find all the different meanings embedded within the layers.