An Italian Ink Link – Emiliana Adriano

The Ink Link is an ongoing project at CN&CO that showcases tattoos in the workplace. One of the great things about a tattoo is it goes against the commonly-held viewpoint that “what you see is what you get”. There’s a misguided belief in certain quarters that in order to be a working professional, it is categorically *impossible* to have a tattoo…because how can someone with a tattoo be a professional? We are putting paid to that perception through the stories showcased in the Ink Link. If you or anyone you know would like to be featured, please get in contact with us.

I was the type of person who held onto things for too long: people, places, memories, heartbreak, love, loss…. unable to release my grip. I had always convinced myself that holding onto the things I thought mattered most would fill the void left by things that had already left. I believed that losing people I thought were meant to be in my life forever, meant losing parts of myself too. I’ve never been the type of person who feared being hurt. I didn’t only believe in second chances, but third and forth and forgiveness was a gift that I gave too easily. I was the type of person who found healing in healing others. I loved too easily, hurt too deeply and would carry the weight of the things that didn’t work out as I had imagined them to.

On a Saturday in late November 2015, my family and I had gathered around the television to watch the M-Net 8 o’clock film, You’re Not You, based on the novel by Michelle Wildgen.

Here’s what IMDb has to say about the film:

The plot centres around a classical pianist, Kate, who is diagnosed with ALS, and Bec, a student would-be rock singer who can barely keep her life together. When Bec accepts the job to assist Kate, just as Kate’s marriage to Evan begins to fall apart at the seams, both women become dependent on one another in a sometimes challenging, otherwise fiercely honest bond. Both women begin rubbing off on one another and find themselves facing down regrets, challenging the unexpected and growing an understanding of who they want to be.

Towards the end of the film, Bec turns to Kate and says, “The biggest thing that I have to thank you for is that you didn’t let me fuck this up. ‘Cause no one in my life has ever done that for me.”

So often in life I think we tend to complicate things, and I’m a hypocrite for even saying so. We often get wrapped up in the idea of how things are supposed to be instead of remembering why it is that we started.

According to Eminem, “The truth is you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed”. The idea of not being able to control the things that we often wish we could have control over is somewhat scary. So often we get caught up in the things that consume our hearts and minds that we often miss the moments of magic that happen when we least expect them. We tend to overthink, over-imagine, over-obsess instead of not thinking, not wondering and just breathing and trusting that things that are meant for us will always be ours. We tend to forget that life is a montage of unexpected events, new places and unfamiliar people that leave footprints on our hearts… and so it goes.

In his renowned book Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut repeatedly wrote the words, “So it goes” – three words that simultaneously accept and dismiss everything. The phrase neatly encompasses a whole way of life “Shit happens and it’s awful but its ok. We deal with it because we have to.” This is something that echoed through my conscience long before I decided to walk into SA Hardcore Tattoos and brave my fear of needles. On a sunny Friday afternoon, I imprinted my body with permanent ink that means so much more than its three simple words. I am still writing my own story and just like ink to a pen, the ink in my skin has marked me with a constant reminder that things may occur far beyond my control and that I am merely a product of my thoughts, actions, connections, relationships and experiences…. and so it goes.