Tattoos that are more than Skin- deep

Tattoos that are more than Skin- deep

Every morning I attend my therapy session at Notre Dame De Chartres Hospital that is a routine for me now. One time in the Rehab ward while waiting my attending therapist, I could not help but to notice and comment the tattoo on the biceps of a teen-age man sitting beside me. We used to get to know each other because we are both patients there. The elaborate black tattoo looked like a band encircling his biceps area. It had longitudinal parallel lines connecting the margins of the bands, and there were diagonal lines intersecting inside the margins of rectangles formed. I asked him where he got it and what the tattoo mean and symbolizes for him. He said he had no choice but to have that when he was still a member f a known group. In addition, as he added, according to him, the tattoo must have save his life many times when he was still a member of that group. I assumed. I thank him and then I went to my desired room as my therapist called me. After an hour, at last the therapy finished. I sat down again in the reception area to wait again my turn for my follow up check up. I could not but to notice again the arm of a middle aged-man who already the next patient for check up. I fixed my sight on the details of his big tattoo that transverse a few ribs over his cardiac area. It was tattooed picture of the crucified Christ with a white crimson bleeding heart.
I never asked the second man what his tattoo meant for him. I just smiled and said, “God bless po” If I asked the same questions, I knew I would get the same answer and reasons as what the first man gave. “Protection, security, hope”.
“His heart really bleeds for many of us and he really serves lives a lot of times,” I whispered to myself.

Never Too Late for a Turnaround
Every morning on our life’s way, we are acquainted with many people, including ourselves. You come to understand there is always something good in you and in all people, even the most hardened of all. There is always a door for change for us sinners. It is our humanity to acknowledge our sins when we set our selves at the altar of God that makes some flower s bloom in us. Our acceptance of Him empties our feelings of “half-emptiness”. His love leads us to a renewed life like an infant. He wholeheartedly accepts those who come to Him, nary He refuses. Even if we see ourselves as sinful at times.
^^Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways^^