40th, Part 3

Sunday was the big finale of the three days of birthday celebration. After several years, I decided to get a tattoo. So Gina scheduled a session with Laura Black at Voluta Tattoo.

Let me say that if you want a fantastic artist, Laura is it.

I decided to go with the endless knot as my tattoo. Years ago, my good friend Chuck gave me a couple of bone china tea cups that featured a Celtic endless knot. And in my recent readings of Buddhist texts, the endless knot has appeared there as well. Many interpretations of the endless know exist, but my preliminary choice of it was that it represents both everything and nothing. You can think of it this way:

If you say, I know nothing, then you know everything.

If you say, I know everything, then you know nothing.

I find this paradox intriguing and truthful. Laura took a very bland bitmapped version of the know and transformed it into the image here. I'm thrilled with the result.

But none of this would have been possible without Gina. Any one of these days would have been a birthday to remember. She gave me three in a row, and I cannot possibly thank her enough.