Life.Love.Regret.

I have paid dearly for my sins

22/09/2018

On my left bicep

I have a tattoo

That I got in jail

It says:

Life.Love.Regret.

Life for all that is

The entirely of one’s being

And everything in the world

Good and bad in all its vastness

What it means to me

And the sentence I faced

Life without parole

And coming to terms with it

Love for all that is good

The best sensations

In the tapestry of existence

For how I feel

About family and friends

And the woman I love

A guiding light in the dark

Regret for my crime

And every decision I made

That led me to ruin

And hurt other human beings

For the little things that haunt me

All I should have said and done

And for the human race

With all the pain and malice

And all that could be.

The tattoo is a reminder

Of what’s important

Something to think about

In the time of ashes

And a souvenir of the years I lost

Paying for my sins

—

I have a few jail tattoos, much to my Mothers horror. It’s very common in jail for tattoos to be left unfinished as the guns often get discovered during cell searches so I chose one that could be done in one sitting. It was mind-blowingly painful, much more than a professional job but I endured and wear them with pride.

Strangely tattoos are the one thing that’s actually cheaper on the inside. I got my bicep done for a 30 dollar pouch of tobacco.

The phrase: Life.Love.Regret. was also the name of a hard-core punk band, for whatever reason it stuck with me and was a phrase that was rolling around my head for the first year of jail.

I have paid dearly for my sins, this tattoo acknowledges the profound meaning I found when regrets were eating me alive.