Rose Tattoo (not the band)

Seeing as the marketing for Cystic Fibrosis is completely useless, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make MYSELF the poster girl for CF. I decided on a good marketing strategy to get the message out once and for all! It all stems from the rose, being the elegant and meaningful symbol for Cystic Fibrosis. It's meaning comes from the small child who mis-pronounced the words Cystic Fibrosis and instead said 65 Roses. This turned into a poem which turned into a song, which turned into something that Angry Anderson of Rose Tattoo stood up and said, raaahhhh about, jumping on the very small and crowded band wagon of people who know someone who has CF and wants to help. Let's get a bigger wagon, I say! CF Australia could certainly use the exposure. So I am offering to expose myself. Right here on this blog. I have taken the symbol for CF and had it tattoed on my back.

How it all began...

My brother has many tattoos. One night, not too long ago, we were out together and I was asking him which tattoo he was going to get next. He has CF too. He's the type of guy who wears it on his sleeve and so he said he'd like to get 65 roses tattoed on his arm. I thought it was a beautiful idea, so I told him I would get it too.

So there I was, sitting on the tattoo chair, having my back prepared. It was my first tattoo, and instead of 65 roses I got two Roses (there is plenty of time to add the other 63 later on). My brother took me to see his friend, a tattoo artist at Wicked Ink, who did a really great job.

It felt half way between a bee sting and that feeling you get when you're sunburnt and someone keeps slapping you on the back. I thought the pain was nothing compared to what I've put up with during all of my hospital admissions. It took three hours. As my brother watched the birth of the artwork on my back, he told me how great it was coming up on my skin and later told me how well I sat for it, saying I didn't even flinch.

Now I have two roses on my back. One represents my brother and the other represents me...we are both proud and enduring people, marked and now tattoed with CF.