I’m grouping the posts I will write during my stay in New York under this category: Explorator. Some of them will be multi-category posts, which means they belong to more than one category. In this case, I will list them initially under Explorator and when they are off the main page I will go back to edit them and list them under the other categories they belong to. I will do that because usually the small box under any multi-category post does not fit more than one category title. I don’t like things to be off like that, so I will trick the system when nobody is watching.

That off my chest, I can proceed now to the story of this post.

There are three tattoo studios in the area where I live, and they are all within a five minute walking distance from my current location on this couch. I eye them from the car every time I pass by them and make mental notes to google them when I get home. I google them, they’re good places with good reviews, and I make mental notes to decide on an ink design. I decide on a design, and wonder if I will tolerate it 20 years down the road. I decide I will because it is smart and I even imagine myself telling my grandchildren the story behind it, quite possibly the story in this post.

There is no way around it. If I am surrounded by body art studios, I will have to succumb to the temptation of ink and needles. I have been trying to resist for the past week, but secretly at night I look up designs and imagine them on my skin. I am ill.