My Next Tattoo

I have one tattoo. It’s the tattoo equivalent of of one of those Best Friends Forever necklaces that thirteen year old girls buy at Claire’s at the mall: my best friend Mandy and I got them together and they both say “heart.” It’s on my wrist (get it? … I wear my heart on my sleeve) and I love it. It’s so cheesy and it makes me smile every time I look down at it and remember the insane personal pitcher drinking, jukebox memorizing, dive bar crying, talking shit about boys bender we were on together around the time we got them.

But lately I’ve been feeling like I need a new tattoo, something that is just mine alone. And, yes, I’ve definitely been considering a baseball tattoo. A few of my friends have rolled their eyes at this idea, I think because most sports tattoos are so very bad. Although I love my Astros, I don’t really think getting a team-specific tattoo is the way for me to go. I want the tattoo I get to somehow encompass all the things that baseball is to me: art, whimsy, science, religion, math, history, nostalgia, sadness, and happiness… Something like, well, this:

But of course, that’s already taken.

Although I try to keep an open mind, there are some things that I know my baseball tattoo won’t include:

Having ruled out evil clowns, eagle claws, flames, and Dallas Braden’s perfect game, I’m sure I’ll figure something out soon. Y’all let me know if you have any great ideas for me, and of course you will be the first to know when I finally come to a decision about how to declare my love for this game that other people play onto my skin permanently. (Weird.)