January 18, 2010 - 26.2 Tattoo - Phase One

This was the inspiration for my tattoo.

the tattoo that is on the shoulder blade is going to be covered up. it is a skeleton on a surfboard. i got it on my 18th birthday. i love this tattoo, but it faded too much from not taking care of it in the sun and has kind of all mushed together. i will miss him.

January 18,2010
Marathon Tattoo Part One...

Today I started the first of many sittings for the tattoo that I decided to get about a year ago when I decided to run my first marathon.
Let me give you a little history. Last year my wife Jenny and I finished our first half marathon. Jenny's running partner Terri Ward also finished this half marathon in New Orleans, Louisiana. This was Terri's second half marathon. A few weeks later, after all of our pain wore off from half marathon, we all decided to sign up for our first full marathon. We thought and thought about what marathon would be the best for all of us. Terri told us about the first half that she ran in Memphis, Tennessee, it was for St. Jude. Terri said it was an amazing race, and that it was something that she thought that we would really enjoy. We all discussed a number of different races and decided that we really wanted our first marathon to be one that we really wanted to be special. What better way to make our first marathon special but to do it to fight cancer!
Training started in August and we all realized very fast that that we had a long road ahead of us. We had short runs, recovery runs, tempo runs, interval runs, cross training days, rest days and most importantly LONG runs. I learned really fast that our long runs were where we were going to get to know A LOT about eachother. Now when I say a lot, i mean a lot! Probably a lot of stuff that a guy doesn't want to hear about or really know about until running with a bunch of women. This is when I decided that I would do most of my long runs with what came to be my best friend, also known as my ipod! With all of that said there was one good thing that came out of our long runs. We all decided that we would get tattoo's to mark this occasion in our lives. Terri decided on a ichthus (jesus fish), Jenny decided on presbyterian seal dove, and I, being a tattoo guy, chose something really big! Jenny and Terri, along with a lot of our friends call me a machine or bionic man when it comes to running, so I found this inspiration piece for my 26.2 tattoo. It has a LONG way to go, but this was the first two and a half hours of a thirty plus hour tattoo to go. Oh and a coverup of a tattoo that I got when I was eighteen.
I plan on showing more of this tattoo as it is in the works. We have a long way to go. There were certain parts of this tattoo that were very painful tonight, but all I could think of when I was getting it were the kids at St. Jude Children's Hospital. When I ran this marathon I realized that all of the pain that I have ever endured or ever will endure was nothing compared to what these little innocent children have already endured in their short little lives. I pray for these children and their families every night!


By the way the artist's name Vic Wilson of King Pin Tattoo's in D'Iberville, Mississippi. He is an amazing artist. Check him out if you ever want something done at www.kingpintattoo.com