" Beware the false motives of others Be careful of those who pretend to be brothers" Lauryn Hill Forgive them Father
2009-10-08, 10:19 p.m.

So for the majority of my life I've thought tattoos could potentially be ok, but were generally not such a good idea. The other day my roommate and I were talking about tattoos though, and she mentioned she wanted to get one right under her arm, on her rib cage. I thought about that, and I really liked the idea. A variation that appealed to me even more was a tattoo more towards the back, still under the bra line, right under the shoulder blade.
So that is a pretty awesome place to have a tattoo.
That was this weekend. This past week has a been a week of ideas for me. Huge, world changing, systemic ideas for promoting the rights of children, for going beyond good and evil (btw, Nietzsche? Douche bag, not really a fan) and focusing on the idea of justice, human rights.
Justice. I like that word better than peace, and better than freedom. It's harder, more real, more realistic. I'm not talking a poetic, vigilante justice. I'm talking about a I don't need you to understand me, but I need you to realize the difference between right and wrong, and to act accordingly, just do right. And when others aren't doing right- speak up. Like Malcolm X said, you can't have peace without Justice. You can't have ANYTHING (love, peace, understanding) until you've 'done right' by someone, until there is respect. Being just, that's respect in its highest form.

The next part is what I want it to look like. I want it written in Arabic. Arabic is a beautiful language with layers of meaning, and it personalizes the world for me, brings the whole thing full circle.

The problem is 'adl is the only Arabic word I can think of that means justice, and I don't really like the way it looks. I was thinking maybe of intertwining it with the word truth, even though Im having a hard time with even acknowledging that there is an existence of truth. Maybe a word that is more akin to knowledge, or wisdom.

Either way, it would be just in black ink, plain arabic script, bold. Ive had it sketched out in eyeliner for a bit and I absolutely love it.It's only eyeliner, but it's empowering, and it looks great.

The reason I want it is as a reminder to myself about the ideals that are important to me right now, so if I ever am tempted to get apathetic and lazy, they won't escape me. So when my 6 year training grant contract is up, I won't forget the things that matter. And Im not talking grand scale ideals only. I'm talking things as simple as remembering to impart knowledge to everyone, to stop acting like it only belongs to the rich. I'm talking behaviors as simple as acting justly towards myself and others, and to promoting and advocating the dissemination and practice of knowledge and justice in something as simple as reading and writing, speech and action.

Kind of like writing something down on your hand so you wont forget- except for a little more permanent.

I'm going to probably talk to my parents about it, because even if they don't agree, I want them to know. I dont want to be one of those adults that one day slips and their parents find out that oh shit, my kid isn't who I thought she/he was.
They know who I am, I know who I am. And I'm positive they won't be surprised when I mention it. They certainly wont like it, and it'll take some convincing, but there really isn't much they can do about it at this point and again, they probably wont be at all surprised.