A while back, while talking with the girl at Jiffy Lube who was always
getting a new piercing or tatoo, the other old guy in the waiting room
got in to the conversation about "ink".

"You know, I was a marine - in two different "conflicts" - and somehow
avoided getting a tatoo. Then my son became a tatoo artist and I got
this." He pointed to a small chinese character on the inside of his
forearm.

"What's it say?" we asked.

"Ouch!" was the reply.

That's when I started thinking about getting something like that done.

So the day before my 63rd birthday I started searching the web for the
chinese character for OUCH, wanting to make sure that what I THOUGHT the
character I was going to go with was in FACT the character with the
meaning OUCH.

Never did find it, but did find the character for TREE, which can also
mean WOOD.

For "only" $70, and about 20 minutes of having a black pigment poked
into my skin - with a small, rapidly vibrating needle - ta da! - TREE -
in chinese - in my forearm. By next year - with some luck - I'll have
found the chinese character for TURNING.

I see this as a commitment to wood and woodworking. Other's may see it
as justification for having me committed.

Fun way to mark, literally, a day in my life.