Garuda Tattoo by Dave Peavy at Federal Hill Tattoo, worn by Caroline Peavy.

When I asked her [my friend with many tattoos] once how she could allow her body to be marked up so casually with permanent ink, she said, “Oh, but you misunderstand! It’s not permanent. It’s just temporary.”

Confused, I asked, “You mean, all your tattoos are temporary?”
She smiled and said, “No, Liz. My tattoos are permanent; it’s just my body that’s temporary. So is yours. We’re only here on earth for a short while, so I decided a long time ago that I wanted to decorate myself as playfully as I can, while I still have time.”
I love this so much, I can’t even tell you.

Elizabeth Gilbert, ‘Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear’, Bloomsbury, 2015.