What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year?
There are so many positive events that have happened for me this year. I think all of them revolve around the baby steps I’ve taken to becoming a truly healed trauma survivor. The moments where I have said what I was thinking and feeling and didn’t immediately apologize for it. Setting boundaries and enforcing them. Going to a concert to hear songs that helped me on my healing journey sung live.
And of course, I can’t talk about positive events without talking about my ‘year of the tattoo’. I have spent this year covering my arms (and a spot on my chest) with pretty pictures stabbed into my skin with permanent ink. Technically, not permanent. One of the artists I worked with this year said if we lived to be 4,000 years old, our tattoos would eventually disappear because our body is constantly breaking down the ink.
This brings me to my “something good” topic. My latest tattoo is finally starting to heal. I got it two Fridays ago and so it really should be pretty healed by now. But as it turns out, it got pretty infected. Let me just say, infected tattoos are no fun. An artist I interacted with on Threads said it looked like my artist overworked the area. It’s possible I suppose. I did everything I normally do post-tattoo as far as keeping it clean and wrapped, but for whatever reason, it got infected. In case you’re wondering, an infected tattoo is scabby, very red, very painful and feels very tingly, like when your foot is waking back up from being asleep. It was also warm to the touch, which is the one thing that immediately made the urgent care doc know for sure it was infected.
So, he put me on the highest dose of a penicillin-based antibiotic that I have to take four times a day for 10 days. Needless to say I rescheduled my appointment on the 20th to have this piece finished. I’m going back mid-January to give it enough time to heal completely. And healing it is! I’m on day four of the antibiotics. The doctor said to wait until the red goes away before putting lotion on it again. The red has now gone away and the scabs are really coming off now. They say the itchy phase is the worst part of getting a tattoo and I would agree, except now, I am very grateful for the itchy phase because it means my tattoo is finally healing properly. I will not complain one bit about the god-awful itching that I can’t scratch. I’m also grateful that there was minimal damage to the design with the infection. I only see one tiny spot that may need to be touched up when I go back.
I’m a little nervous about going back and having him work on me again, but there’s really not much left that he has to do. So it shouldn’t take long and I hope, minimal risk of another infection. Which, let me just reiterate, sucks! But! Finally getting to the itchy healing phase is wonderful and definitely something good this week.
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