tattoo.

today, after about 4 years of talking about, thinking about, drawing it, i finally headed over to d.c. ink with some of my dear friends and got my long-awaited tattoo! i'm pretty psyched about it on many levels, but i thought it would be fun to write about its significance, since i'm all about symbolism.

the dove design was drawn by my dear friend jolynn, so the image holds a lot of significance for me because of that. i chose a dove for several layers of meaning. first, my name, kathryn, comes from the greek word, katharon (it looks way cooler in greek!), which means pure one. so in this way, a dove is a symbol of my name, claiming proudly who i am in my uniqueness. the dove also stands for peace, peace which i desire to strive after in following the example of Jesus and the principles of non-violence for myself, peace which i pray for the world to find. furthermore, the dove also stands for Spirit and creativity, aspects of both the Divine and of myself that i want to spend my life exploring and cultivating. the dove is in flight because of the image of freedom and movement, freedom to live fully and celebrate the gift of life, freedom to be who i and who we are called to be. the flight of the dove also makes me think of joseph's house, of singing "i'll fly away" in the garden while sprinkling ashes, of all those who have flown away to freedom and have touched my soul so deeply.

lastly, the word beloved holds special meaning to me. the reality that i am loved, cherished, valued as my identity, for my being, not for anything i do but for who i am, by a loving God, is key to my view of the world. i have articulated my call in the past as to affirming belovedness, for myself and for others, to celebrate and value each person and to confront systems of injustice and oppression that detract from that belovedness.

so there it is, in case you were curious... :-)