About 7 weeks ago, I got my first tattoo, which was the words "Love will tear us apart again" written down the centre of my forearm. Almost four weeks ago I got my second tattoo, the reading of the first discovered pulsar, also the cover of Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures," completing the piece.
A little background on the piece: when I was 16, quite a few serious events unfolded in my life. I was a foster child at the time, and I had some mental health issues that resulted in me being volleyed about from hospital to hospital as psychiatrists picked apart my brain and my behavioural problems. At some point I ended up at a hospital in up-state New York, where I saw the movie "Donnie Darko" for the first time. To cut the story down to size, I identified with the movie. One song in it particularly caught me: Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." I listened to it daily. Fast forward a year, give or take, and while living in a group home, one of the boys I lived with gave me the "Unknown Pleasures" CD for Secret Santa. He never got the help he needed, or the family he needed, and wasn't as fortunate as I was. So while this piece is also a tribute to one of my favourite bands, it is mainly a reminder of a time in my life, and of how lucky I am.
I've already had several kids in big glasses and flannel come up to me in New York and complain that "Love Will Tear Us Apart" isn't on "Unknown Pleasures." Having to deal with them is probably my only regret about this tattoo.
EDIT: Sorry about the huge pictures. Is there any way to resize them so they don't punch everyone in the face with how big they are?