the story of my Scott Erickson tattoo
“Something in you died…and yet something still remains.
It’s not our capacity for dying as much as our capacity to come back from dying that keeps me interested.
All that to say is…When you feel like something’s dying,
Remember you’re also a resurrection.”
from my journal on april 17, 2022 (easter sunday):
i didn’t think i’d feel like celebrating today but here i am, rejoicing that Christ my Lord is risen. even on a year where my spirit feels more connected to the weight and grief of Good Friday, I can’t help but celebrate with gratitude for all that the resurrection holds.
to know that it’s possible that each can be conquered and darkness can be overcome… amen.
thank you, Jesus.
and from a poem i wrote for an easter video at work:
“Into the world God made
Full of light and life and beauty
Came his Son, a humble Savior
Jesus, Messiah
A Rabbi, Healer, friend
Hosanna! Cried the crowds
As they lifted God’s name high
But just a few days later
The chant turned to
Crucify!
Crucify!
On a cross
Among criminals
Our King
For our sins
For three long hours
Darkness came over the land
And Jesus breathed his last
Gave his life into his Father’s hands
His body, broken and bloody, was buried
In a tomb behind a stone
His people left in the unknown
But then came sunday
That stone was rolled away
The women found an empty grave
What was promised came to be
He conquered death,
Our Risen King
The way was made
The debt was paid
Every prophecy proven true
Every promise carried through
Everything now made new”
and from one of my tweets on april 17:
“the sweetness of Easter this year came mostly in the reminder that i believe resurrection is real, and that knowing it HAS happened means it can and WILL happen again, and in me, in my life, in my story.”
and so, a tattoo of resurrection.
a tattoo of new life breaking free and bursting forth from the place that once held death.
a tattoo of beauty coming from brokenness.
a tattoo of hope, of healing, of heaven.
because i believe resurrection is real, and i believe it HAS happened, and i believe it WILL happen, and i believe it changes everything, forever.
i’ve seen it in the life of Jesus, and i’ve seen it in my life, too. from the place of the very worst pain, the very darkest moment, the deepest agony and feelings of abandonment and betrayal… in time, healing comes. that death, however final it may seem, however painful and unexplainable and devastating, is not the end of the story.
new life is coming.
in three days, or three years, or maybe not until glory one day, healing will happen. life will sprout up from the very place of death. beauty will bloom again. growth will take root and branch out.
the depression, the rape, the abuse, the trauma, the toxic relationships, the childhood wounds, the messy family, the anxiety, the chronic pain, the self-hatred, the inner critic, the loneliness, the grief… none are the end of the story.
resurrection is real.
i believe it to be true, because my very existence is living proof.
and this tattoo tells of that story.
to God be the glory.
ps— I am endlessly grateful for the incredible talent of Scott Erickson, and for this piece of art that made me weep when I saw it for how perfectly it depicted my story. it was an honor and a joy to purchase Scott’s work and to send him money as an expression of my gratitude for his art becoming a piece of the art on my body. (he shared here that getting his art as tattoos is totally cool with him, in addition to sharing ways that one could compensate him for doing so, which is what i did!)