On April 5th I had to go down to Sioux City to get a biopsy done at the dermatologist for a area of rough/flakey skin on my face(which ended up being nothing but scar tissue)…I’ve had another doctors appointment up in Orange city and it was a beautiful sunny day I was listening to my new favorite podcast “Cancer for Breakfast”(thanks Wendy!)…In that particular episode,one of the gals’ son was at home down the hall doing virtual band practice via Zoom… She said “Okay listeners…if you’re listening to this episode and happen to hear a clarinet in the background,that means you’re gonna have a good luck for the rest of the day!” Secretly I was hoping that I’d hear a clarinet because I was ready for some good luck! 😂 so here I was listening to the podcast and what do ya know, I heard the clarinet… I switched over to hear some reggae music and one of my faves came on …Three Little Birds by Bob Marley-it’s been my go to song whenever I’m anxious about something for years… And knowing that I had a second biopsy coming up on Wednesday I definitely had some unrest in my soul. While I was driving I was thinking about how much peace that song gives me , I know the rest of the story probably sounds a little crazy because I’d never actually gotten a tattoo but I have planned on it for a long time. I always thought my first tattoo would be a hummingbird for my Grams(Grandma Kendall) ,To remind me to always seek the sweetness in life like she did…but a couple of weeks before this day, I found the perfect tattoo for my situation…a tattoo of “Three Little Birds” on a wire… I wanted to get it inked on my body somewhere where I could see it and be reminded, as the chorus says that “every little thing gonna be alright” , if and when things were to get difficult. I decided somewhere close to my left wrist would be appropriate… So I messaged one of my friends who owns a tattoo shop with her husband…Saying that I knew was probably crazy to expect to get it done that day (but hey I was gonna have good luck remember?) But that it was small and figured it might be something someone could squeeze me in between longer appointments or something…I figured I’d check my messages when I got out of the dermatology clinic.
Once at the clinic, the nurse came to get me from the waiting room and we went back into the procedure room I hadn’t seen them since a few weeks before Daytona & we decided to wait on the biopsy at that point so I wouldn’t have a fresh scar to worry about protecting while I was in the sunshine down there…The sun rays can cause a healing wound to do weird things as an attempt to protect itself and the new skin. I certainly was not interested in risking a big hypertrophic scar developing on my face.😬 The nurse asked me the typical questions, you know…verifying what meds I was taking and if there had been any changes to my health,so of course I had to tell her about my recent breast cancer diagnosis. Now, this is where the hope started to “reveal itself” to me yet again…The nurse’s Mom had just gone through treatment for breast cancer the year before, including surgery and reconstruction with the same “dream team” of Dr.s Dirksen and Karu, at Sanford in Sioux Falls! It was definitely a sense of knowing I was on the right track and that I had been led to the right doctors. I find so much comfort in little things like that.
It had been a long week and my sweet friend Kelly (a.k.a. Hope…her Pinup model alias) and I had been meaning to get together but hadn’t had the chance. We were both on each other’s minds and she called me right before I went into the office, saying she’d meet me at the clinic as soon as she could get there …so as I was walking out to my car after my appointment, there was my friend “Hope” pulling into the parking lot! Talk about perfect timing ! We sat and talked for a while and I told her my crazy harebrained scheme/idea to get my tattoo somewhere that day… she has several tattoos and knows quite a few of the local artists. We headed over to the Morningside “Ink District” , where there are several tattoo parlors in the same one block radius. We first stopped by Living Art (which is the shop I was talking about above)but they were closed…So we decided to drive around the block and just decided to see “what door God opened”… imagine the “goosebumps” when we got to “Addictive Tattoo” ( both Kelly and I happen to be friends with the wife of the artist who owns that tattoo shop too)…and realized the front door was literally OPENED!!! 😁😇 We decided that was a sign, & went in. We were talking with artist “Drew Jett” at the counter, when some other artists walked back in from lunch. We didn’t know it yet but Good ol Hope was about to shine on me yet again. One of the artists walked in and went behind the counter and was standing back resting against the counter that was the furthest from the front… we notice he was getting a little restless/fidgety as he was looking at something on his phone. I could tell he was listening to the story that we were telling Drew…but Drew didn’t have time that day… That’s when Luke spoke up….”So, what does she want?” I went on to explain exactly what I wanted and why…(Thanks to a persistent Kelly who kept nudging me to tell my story😉😇)…as I talked, Luke started sketching & before could even find the picture of the tattoo that I saved to my phone, Luke had already finished drawing what ended up being my tattoo…He said “what if we create one just for Cari?” I loved it! Luke said he could do it right now, and the three of us headed to his station to get started. It was such a special moment in my life that I will remember forever… And I’ll never forget Luke and the kindness and compassion he showed to me during a very uncertain time in my life… I love my tattoo…&the placement as well (which was Luke’s idea… “Now that I’ve got you hooked” he said, “I want to keep the rest of this prime real estate open in case you decide on a sleeve in the future…” 🤣😁 …now that I have this little gem of a tattoo, I’m definitely hooked! ).
I know it’s not necessary, but kind of cool to add that Luke(artist name Luke Shredder) typically does the “darker” themed tattoos, yet he had such a gentle light in his eyes…As I looked at all the “horror” inspired art (as well as other art)around his tattoo station… It kind of made me smile & reminded me of how you can never judge a book by it’s cover, so to speak…And I instantly connected with the name Luke, maybe because it’s a name I recognized from the Bible…Or maybe because it’s the same name as one of our great-nephews, he is so bright and has such a great little energy as well… Later that night, being the way I am, I decided to look up the meaning of the name Luke:
Illuminating Shadows 