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I got my tattoo!
Feb. 11th, 2018 06:16 pmAnd it was like being tortured? Yeah, so ...
It is probably the only one I will ever get, even though the process lasted less than half an hour? And I breathed and held Ghost's hand and was a grown up even though it felt like I was being repeatedly burned with something sharp and electrical. Did I mention that I have fibromyalgia and pain in one location tends to spread all over my body? That is a thing that happens. And you can't take a bunch of painkillers because you have to sign paperwork in Texas that you are in your right mind and I would not want the tattoo artist to get in trouble because I fucked something up somehow.
But! The word "Mercy" now graces my right wrist, to remind me of the poem Not The Moon by Margaret Atwood. To remind me that we need to know what we are asking of people, and since we can't we should have mercy. I am trying to get my brain used to seeing with mercy, into using it, into having it as one of my tools. But it is a process.
Some people in the tumblr social justice community skew young and don't understand that mercy isn't complicity or silence. Mercy is had for the victim as well as the abuser, and all are seen in it's light. Someone is sure to point out that there are people who are going to be unrepentant abusers who like to hurt others, but I will remind them that the words "mercy killing" exist and are a thing. Mercy is not the opponent of justice.
It is probably the only one I will ever get, even though the process lasted less than half an hour? And I breathed and held Ghost's hand and was a grown up even though it felt like I was being repeatedly burned with something sharp and electrical. Did I mention that I have fibromyalgia and pain in one location tends to spread all over my body? That is a thing that happens. And you can't take a bunch of painkillers because you have to sign paperwork in Texas that you are in your right mind and I would not want the tattoo artist to get in trouble because I fucked something up somehow.
But! The word "Mercy" now graces my right wrist, to remind me of the poem Not The Moon by Margaret Atwood. To remind me that we need to know what we are asking of people, and since we can't we should have mercy. I am trying to get my brain used to seeing with mercy, into using it, into having it as one of my tools. But it is a process.
Some people in the tumblr social justice community skew young and don't understand that mercy isn't complicity or silence. Mercy is had for the victim as well as the abuser, and all are seen in it's light. Someone is sure to point out that there are people who are going to be unrepentant abusers who like to hurt others, but I will remind them that the words "mercy killing" exist and are a thing. Mercy is not the opponent of justice.