Earn It

Had my third session with tattoo artist extraordinaire Joe Rose on Friday night. Added twelve more links to the chain that's snaking up my body, getting from my kneecap to my hip. I forget which excrutiatingly painful part of my anatomy he was inking--maybe the kneecap, maybe over the tendon that runs up the inside of my thigh--but I was vocalising loudly.

"...Awwwww fuck! Goddamn! Fuck! Oh man that hurts!"

And Joe Rose, tattoo artist extraordinaire, said the most amazing thing...

"Yeah. You're earning it."

Earn it.

Damn.

That's beautiful.

"Earn it."

That sure changed my perspective. I have a new credo. Earn it.

Since I moved from the sanding table to Hardware at work, it's been hell. Screwing down and screwing up. So much to know. So many times a day I realize I have no idea what I'm doing. No clue which screw to use to reinforce the rollout I just installed. And getting it wrong again and again. One long humiliation scene.

But guess what. I'm earning it.

No rose without thorns. No omlette aux fines herbes without breaking some eggs.

Ya gotta earn it.

Pain gives meaning to life. Those things--and those people--that we truly come to love and care about are those for which and for whom we have suffered pain and sacrificed, given up some crucial part of ourselves.

Earn it.

All lovers entertain masochistic fantasies from time to time, longing for the opportunity to demonstrate convincingly the depth of the love you have for your beloved. Taking the bullet. Sitting on the porch steps in the freezing rain.

In our society, this urge must for the most part be sublimated. Doing his laundry. Taking care of him when he's down with the flu. Buying him something expensive. Thank the Lord for SM, huh? Offering us the opportunity to show what great lovers we truly are!

Ponder, my darling, the dachshund... In general, at dog shows, points are deducted for any scars on the dog. But according to the American Kennel Club, this does not apply to the dachshund. Dachshunds, you see, were bred for hunting badgers. And they are absolutely fearless. Thus, there are no points deducted for scars earned in battle.

Earn it.

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