What my Tattoo Taught Me

So… I did a thing.

I got what is both my first—and my last—tattoo.

It’s an Om symbol, a sound and symbol that holds deep meaning for me.

What surprised me was my reaction the day after I got it. I was more than a little freaked out. Apparently, this is pretty common after a tattoo, but the thoughts that surfaced were interesting.

One of the first things that arose was how people would see me.

I have changed a lot over the last decade, but for most of my life, I worked in middle management, leading teams in a more conventional professional world. Suddenly, I wondered: Would people judge me? Would this change how others see me?

Underneath that question was something deeper. I could feel that I was leaving an old version of myself behind.

The next thing that surfaced was a need for affirmation.

Does it look good?
Was this a sane thing to do?
What will people think?

And then, slowly, something else emerged.

I remembered why I chose this symbol.

I remembered what Om means to me.

The sound of Om holds the full spectrum of existence—the waking mind, the dreaming mind, deep sleep, and the vast stillness that lies beyond them all. It is the sound of creation, of life unfolding, and of life dissolving again. The quiet hum beneath everything that is. It reminds us that the solid world we move through each day may not be the ultimate reality, but rather a fleeting expression within something far greater. Beyond it stretches the vastness of the universe—of which we are not separate, but deeply and mysteriously interconnected. For thousands of years, this sound has risen softly from monasteries and sanctuaries, carried on the breath of those sitting in meditation, returning again and again to that primordial vibration.

So much meaning lives within this single, sacred sound.

So I decided to meet my feelings head-on.

I used the meaning of Om as the theme for my weekend yoga classes, exploring it together through movement, breath, and meditation.

And something shifted.

By the end of the weekend, I felt peaceful… even joyful.

Doing something permanent on my skin became an unexpected teacher. It asked me to remember the deepest parts of who I have become and who I am still becoming.

There was some grief in letting go of old labels that once defined me.

But on the other side of that grief, I found something stronger: a more solid foundation, rooted not in how I am seen, but in what I know to be true within.

With love and resonance,