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Still backfilling, to some extent. This happened in December, but I waited a while to get a pic of it once it had healed.

Compass rose tattoo, by Kim at Black and Blue Tattoo in SF

It was my first tattoo, at age 35. I have no idea why I waited so long, other than that it took me a while to find a compass rose I really liked, and I’m also bad at making appointments. In the end, once I found my compass rose, I printed it out and walked into the tattoo parlour on a weekday afternoon when they were quiet, and got it done more or less on the spot.

The source is this 1550 map by Pierre Desceliers. It’s one of the “Dieppe Maps”, purported to show early indications of European exploration of the coast of Australia.

Desceliers' 1550 map, showing what might be north-western Australia

I’m told that people with tattoos fall into two categories: either they have one and only one tattoo, or they wind up with many. Few people have exactly two tattoos. This afternoon I’m about to enter that set of two-tattooed people — probably temporarily. Kim at Black and Blue Tattoo (who did my compass rose, and lives on a boat, and seems like exactly the right person for this) is going to give me a wristband in the style of a traditional turk’s head knot. Ever since I learned how to tie turk’s heads I started wearing them as wristbands, making them out of nylon cord or whatever was close to hand. Now I’m going to have one that doesn’t get wet in the shower and freeze my wrist in cold weather. I’ll post a picture in due course.