My Tattoo
I know many of you probably have no clue what this post is going to be about but after this you will.
I first decided I wanted this tattoo shortly after I turned 13. Back then it was just an idea festering in the back of my mind that I wanted a tattoo, it didn't matter much what it was back then, so long as I got one. Shortly after I started my freshman year of high school the list of tattoos that I wanted grew greatly. Since then it's been narrowed and scratched out until only one tattoo is left standing.
Back when I was in middle school and high school I found this band...or more like this band found me. New Medicine; some people say bands or music has saved their life, and honestly I can't say that this band did this for me. But what I can tell you is this band became family, they spoke the words with their songs that I couldn't. I found big brother's and people that I loved.
Back then they were still known as A Verse Unsung, and honestly their songs had given me something to connect to. Yes I had other bands I listened to, but I knew these guys, they'd become a sort of family for me. They'd given me their personal copy of Sleeping Tigers, they'd given me hugs and treated me like family. They'd sat and talked with me for a rather long time about absolutely nothing. The band soon morphed into New Medicine and I was given peeks at the songs they were writing, until that final unveiling happened and I could finally listen to the songs I'd been hearing about.
When I turned 13 I lost my grandfather, and back then it was a little shocking but I hadn't really been affected by it. I missed him, but hadn't really comprehended just what that would mean for me and my family. Shortly after that my other grandfather passed away and I was way more aware of what that meant for my family since he was my mother's father.
That's when I heard the song Little Sister. And yes I'm an only child and no I don't have someone younger than me that passed away way too suddenly, but as Jake always says. 'This is for those of you that have lost anyone too soon' I lost both my grandfather's too soon. The song hit home, in more ways than one. I realized how lucky I was, how blessed I was and how much I missed my grandfather. The first time I heard little sister, I already knew the story behind the song and I'm not ashamed to admit I actually started crying.
It hit home that people leave too soon, which is why I chose the tattoo that I did. A black and white wing with the words 'do your wings fit good?' 'can you fly?' I don't know what Jake went through when he lost his sister, she was only two years old. But I do know what it feels like to have people pulled from your life too soon, whether it's friends, family or just a classmate that you didn't really talk too but you still knew.
This band has turned from some friends that my cousin had that started a band, into something much more. They've turned into family, people who know and understand what it's like to lose someone way too soon. They probably won't know about my tattoo, nor do I really need them too. I got the tattoo because the song means something to me, something more than just a song I like.
New Medicine started out from A Verse Unsung to become a band that thousands of people love and listen to them. But to me, their four guys; Ryan, Jake, Dan and Brady. Who let me come backstage back when they were just starting out, who gave me signed picks and who seem surprised that I would drive three hours and forty five minutes to see them play. They're family, and that's why my tattoo is incorporating them.