My friend that I worked with in college drew this butterfly repeatedly. She got me into alternative music and rounded out my college experience. When I got a butterfly on my ankle, it was the butterfly she drew.
This is a picture of a lily. The lily I got is connected to my friend Rachael, whose mom had died. Her mom’s flower is a lily. I got a tattoo on my foot the same time she did. The colors on the lily are blue and green, which connect to when my cousin died. He was the only real extended family that I was ever close to. These are the colors of the ribbons for the family members to wear for his funeral.
It is not our mistakes that define us. That is only part of the quote. I took that part of the quote. When I was 22, I got a DUI. I am now 39, and that still follows me. It was realizing that I am not this criminal record that I have. The majority of people I talk to have driven while intoxicated. It is not a deficiency in me. It is something I got caught doing, and that does not mean I am a deficient person.
I have had people guess this is a menorah or related to Indiana University. It is the Greek symbol for psi, which the academy of psychology uses. I went into psychology because I fell in love with helping people who need help. I am now a psychologist. I got the initial tattoo from someone apprenticing, and it was terrible. I got it revamped, and it’s still questionable, but it is on me for life.
A couple of months back I did a Microwavable Swedish Meatballs Taste Test . This was a lot of fun for me. I was walking through a grocery store and saw there was another Swedish Meatball option:
Hormel Swedish Meatballs.
I felt like I had to try it. To see if it would effect my test. This is what it looks like after it has been nuked:
Well… if you were wondering if this beats any of them it does not. The taste is not horrible. I imagine if its the apocalypse and the world has ended. I would be stoked to get this. It is shelf stable. You could get it for a camping trip? Maybe? The noodles were not really firm. The meatballs were palatable.
I don’t think this beats any of the Swedish Meatballs I have already tried. Rating would be this would be the best if there was no power, and world chaos had broken out. Then just eat it cold and be happy you have food.
I went to the Philippines. I showed up with absolutely nothing to do. I heard about this lady called Appa Wong Odd. She was the oldest living Ma Baba tattoo artist on the planet. She was 101 when I traveled out to see her and got a traditional tattoo. Hers were the three dots at the bottom. However, the top came from her apprentice. She is bringing back the original style of tattooing with tapping and charcoal ink. They bring money into their village by doing these tattoos. It cost me $28. This is a traveler’s compass in their culture.
Every time I visit another country, I want to get a tattoo of their flag representing traveling for me. The North American Bison is native only to North America. It has flags from the US, Mexico, and Canada. It reminds me of everything I have done here. The bison used to roam the entire continent until we killed all of them.
This is going on to flags of each country I have gone to. The bigger bike is a BWM SX50GS with a Montenegro flag. Montenegro is a country I enjoy. The little one is a Roman Flag and a little monkey. I rode a 50cc knock-off Chinese Monkey across Romania for a week. It was almost the best ride of my life. The other 12 countries banded around my arm are all the eastern block. I did Hungry, Italy, Austria, Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Croatia, Albania, Romania, Moldavia, and Greece. I may have missed a couple.
I walked into a tattoo shop in Dallas, TX, in 2018. I had been a vagabond for like a year and a half. I said I wanted a tattoo, and they said we got time. What do you want? I said, “I don’t know, like a fox on my hand.” I ended up with a fox on my hand.
I got this from a 13-year-old in the Philippines. They passed down the tradition of tattooing from the females in this tribe. They speak OTOT [sp]. You have to do a homestay, which means you have to get an English guide and some Tagalog (National Language). There are over 2000 languages spoken in the Philippines. I got this because there was a 13-year-old practicing tattooing. I wanted it to go all the way around, but I could not stand the pain. It was a partial band that I filled in with modern art that encompassed my year on the road. This is my second-year vagabond tattoo. In Tagalog, it says, “a danger inside a challenge outside.”
[Writer’s Note: I misunderstood and misspelled “otot.” If you know the correct word, please contact me.]
This is my 5th-anniversary vagabond tattoo. I have currently been a vagabond for 5 1/2 years. This was my covid year. We did not get the badass Mad Max year out of quarantine, but I got a badass tattoo out of it. I rode through covid. I watched myself become a hero for being on the road, and all of a sudden, covid happened, and they were like, you need to stop traveling. I was like, I am still houseless, I only have a motorcycle, and I live on the road. People started to hate me and told me all these bad things. I kept going anyways. Throughout the year, I watched myself become the antihero. People were staring at me with desire because I was still living my life and was not depressed. I hung out in states that did not have restrictions. FYI, this reminds me that I visited about 43 states in that year.
This is a European Mink. I was in Europe. I went to Budapest, Hungary. I posted on Facebook, “I am in Hungary. Does anyone want to hang out? I want to meet some people here.” One guy was like, “yeah, I am in Budapest; come stay at my place. He said, “I got some co-workers here; I am on a work job. We have a spare room.” I showed up, and this Serbian man was so nice. He was like, here is coffee, and I wouldn’t say I like coffee, but I sipped at it anyway. You don’t turn down good hospitality. He told me you have to see my family in Serbia. I continued from Hungary to the Italian Alps and the Austrian Alps. I did the Dolomites and Stelvio. I did all the big rides over there. On my way out of there, I swung through Serbia. I go to his family’s house and stay there a couple of nights. They take me out on the town. We then go to a Yugoslavian punk concert. I have no idea what they are saying. It sounds good anyway. I drank a ton of beer and got drunk. Everyone walks around and talks to their neighbors. While I was there, I googled tattoo shops. Found this shop a 5-minute walk from where I was staying. I walked in, and he didn’t speak English, and I didn’t speak Serbian. I sent him a picture of a mink. I was like; you can do it your style. He did the exact image I sent him.
This is a rainbow phoenix. I got it in 2017. I started on the road in August 2016. I was going through my second winter as a vagabond—my first “real” winter since I started so late in 2016. I had seasonal depression. It was cold. I could not go where I wanted as a vagabond who lived outside all the time. I bought myself this tattoo for Christmas to remind myself not to give up. It is very inspiring with each winter, I may die, but with each spring, I come back to life and rise from the ashes.
Lion Fish are an invasive species in the Golf. They are also badass fish. They kill everything; they have spikes. People love to spearfish them. They do a lot of significant tourism hunting the Lion Fish that are not supposed to be there. They are gorgeous. They are apex predators. I learned how to dive recently. I got interviewed by some women in a scuba diving podcast. One of them lived in St Croix. She said if you ever want to come to St Croix, you are more than welcome. That was August of 2021. Please don’t say that to a traveler; I will show up. She said no, I am serious, and I said, how does January of 2022 sound? She said yeah, and I was booking for four weeks. I stayed at her house. I went for my first scuba diving session. It was a discovery scuba dive. You don’t have to be certified. You go out with someone, and they provide everything for you. I loved it and then got certified. I saw my first lionfish and various other creatures.
I was in the Philippines yet again. I was there for 27 days in 2018. I got five tattoos in the first week; 2 traditional and three moderns. The jellyfish was one of my first tattoos there. It’s from an award-winning tattoo artist. That I just happened upon in Manila. He was a super cool guy. He was like what do you want. I said I don’t know a jellyfish; he said what kind. I said I don’t care; make it look pretty. He did a badass job creating a beautiful jellyfish. I think it is Manowar-inspired.
This a fleur-de-lis. It is from France, and it’s the symbol for New Orleans, LA. My boyfriend and I ended up in Nola last year, and we decided to get a tattoo together because we had such a great time eating the food. I got a fleur-de-lis design tattoo with the design of my bike in the middle. He got one with the outline of his bike in the middle. It kind of matches. His bike is a touring bagger, and mine is a duel sport.
This also came from the award-winning tattoo artist. I said I wanted to do a Filipino tattoo with their flag, which is a big star and three tiny stars around the edges. I wanted to do it based on the Filipino eagle. This animal is only native to the Philippines. I said I wanted a realistic head.
This was my second tattoo. It was the first time I had gone to Seattle. I was a very sheltered child. My grandmother was a cop, and we never got to travel. At 24-years-old I went to see my best friend. I had never been anywhere, and he had moved to Seattle. We got the tattoo together. Inside is a wolf which represents me; it’s my favorite animal. There is a hawk, which represents him. We got the feather before it was trendy. It matches me with my best friend. We got opposite shoulders, so when we are standing next to each other, it’s like a mirror. It means a lot to me.
My very first was my eyeliner. I got that from a lady named Marion Kay. She is in Oklahoma City and is world-renowned. I went in as was like; I want to get this done. I have been wearing eyeliner for ten years. I don’t ever go outside without it, so why not get it tattooed? I got this a month before I hit the road in 2016. It was my most expensive tattoo until recently. It was $400.
This person works with www.bunkabiker.org. Please check them out if you are a traveling biker.
I changed my religion to Norse. I wanted a Fenrir tattoo to symbolize this change. This tattoo means, “Not all who wander are lost.” The quote is from Lord of the Rings. If you are “wandering,” it kind of means, you are dead in the Norse religion. I eventually want another tattoo on the other side with Odin and his ravens.
DP. My best friend is a guy named Dave. My name is Patrick. We both got these when we were 18 years old. We had been best friends since first grade. We got the tattoos and then later realized DP holds a different meaning, which is on both of our backs. It’s a good story.
This is a picture of Tom Waits with a trumpet. My favorite song is “Tango till they’re sore.” It has a fantastic discordant trumpet sound. It is a picture of Tom hanging in a tree in silhouette that I love.
Peggy Rubio, I got this for my mom. She passed away when I was 20 years old. The cross is a Celtic cross. My mom was Catholic, so there was some meaning there.
Three Sevens and a Horseshoe. It was done by a guy apprenticing. I got it done in his bedroom when I was just a little over 18. It is very poorly done. It’s got blowouts all over the place. It’s raised it crazy. It’s an incredible story, and I helped a guy out who was just getting started in tattooing.
The little green guy on my leg is a drawing I did. I got it right after I got divorced—a gift to myself of something I like to do for me. Once I was out of that horrible relationship, I started drawing again, which I had not done in years. It was one of the first things I had loved that I had done. So I got it done on myself.
Popeye’s Chicken review. Here are my previous reviews of Bojangles, KFC, and Church’s.
I got there about noon, which is prime lunchtime. I waited behind a person who had a giant order. They were fast and polite and got things done in an organized way. I did wait in line long enough that I got tempted, and I added a strawberry cheesecake to my order. I got sucked in by temptation.
I was able to use a paper coupon at Popeye’s. I got five pieces of chicken: three spicy/two original, taters and gravy, fries, and two biscuits. I also ordered the strawberry cheesecake. My total of $14.36 was a good deal. I did not get a drink because it was not included with the coupon, and I have drinks at home.
Joejoe: The chicken was good. I think the original had more flavor than the spicy—both pieces are crispy with a good taste. The original has an excellent cajun aftertaste.
Shellie: Comparable to the others, Popeye’s was on the better side. Like Bojangles, I didn’t feel “gross” after I ate it. I don’t feel like it had excessive grease. I ate a chicken breast, which tasted better than Bojangles’ chicken breasts.
Joejoe: The biscuit was the best. None of the others compare on flavor. An excellent buttery taste and good texture. It is smaller than some biscuits but not enough to complain about.
Shellie: Biscuit: of all the places we tried, this was the best of the biscuits. It tasted fresh and had a good aftertaste. It had a good texture like it wasn’t frozen and nuked.
Joejoe: The fries were a perfect flavor. They were not crispy, which does lose some points for me. I would still say I enjoyed them. They have an excellent cajun aftertaste, making you feel like it’s real food.
Shellie: Fries: Ok. I wouldn’t bother. The seasoning was good, though.
Joejoe: The mac and cheese was like homemade mac and cheese. It had cheese on top and cheese throughout the whole thing. Not oily, just really good flavor. The noodles were a good texture.
Shellie: Best Mac and Cheese. This was the only Mac and Cheese I liked. It had a variation of texture, making it seem like it was home-cooked, and to top it off, it had fresh cheddar cheese on top!
Joejoe: The mashed taters and gravy were excellent. They tasted like real taters and gravy. The sauce was right. They had an excellent cajun taste.
Shellie: It had chunks of real potatoes, making me think it wasn’t instant! Good flavor. It almost tasted like ranch seasoning, but not fake-tasting.
Joejoe: Final wrap-up: I am surprised Popeye’s wins. The chicken was good, and they had the best biscuits, taters, and mac and cheese. The fries were also good. KFC had the best fries, but I would need a blind taste test for chicken. I don’t think KFC would win. KFC also had the worst biscuits. I am disappointed that Bojangles didn’t score higher. It looks like the next time I am going for chicken, it will be Popeye’s.
Shellie: Popeye’s is the only chicken place worth going back to.
Xuix: The kanji for water. I got this tattoo in Chinese because I like Chinese culture. I like to think of myself as able to do the things water does. Water is resilient and adaptable. It takes all shapes and forms in waterfalls, rainfalls, oceans, and lakes. I like to be more resilient and adaptable.
Church’s Chicken: A Once in a Lifetime Experience. Hopefully, it stays that way. Here are my previous reviews of Bojangles and KFC.
I have never been to Church’s before. I have driven by this place many times and never stopped there.
The Church’s ordering experience was a mess. The manager had just left to get ice, as they did not have ice for the soda machine. I attempted to use a coupon, but they were not sure what to do with it. I tried to place an order of only white meat. However, Shellie got a dark meat piece. I am not sure if this is correct, but I was told the spicy was only dark meat. We didn’t get spicy for this reason.
My order was a three-piece. It came with mashed taters and gravy, a biscuit, and a drink. I ordered a side of mac and cheese and fries. The total cost was $16.16.
Nothing seemed great coming out of the box. The soda was warm and flat. They had not filled the soda machine yet.
Shellie rode with me to pick this up: The pickup experience was an EXPERIENCE. A staff member had to run out to buy ice. The person taking our order was new. It was chaotic. The diet coke was flat and had no ice as they hadn’t refilled the ice machine yet. I don’t know why it was so flat.
Joejoe: The chicken was pretty good. Nothing special as a flavor profile. Lots of breading, basic food.
Shellie: The chicken was delicious. Unfortunately, we paid for a white meat combo, but I somehow ended up eating a dark meat thigh that I thought at first was a breast. It was greasy, but the skin went very well with the chicken, and it tasted good. I liked it better than the other chicken places, but I think I tend to like dark meat better, so I couldn’t easily compare.
Joejoe: The biscuit had a very sweet coating which tested good. Once you get past the sweet, it was not a good biscuit. If I had eaten it fast, it would have been good. However, I ate it slowly. It started good but then seemed kind of mealy like cornbread.
Shellie: The biscuit was sweet and very good. I wanted to gobble it up. It tasted like a dessert.
Joejoe: The fries were delicious. They had a seasoning that I can’t describe—really good fries.
Shellie: The fries were crinkle-cut, but they were crunchy, fried, and greasy. Yum. not healthy, but yummy.
Joejoe: Mac and cheese. Meh. Not good, not bad, just boring. The cheese was ok. I would surprisingly say these were better than Bojangles mac and cheese.
Shellie: The mac and cheese was similar to other places – not unique. But I haven’t like any of them very much.
Joejoe: Taters and gravy were good. Maybe because they gave more gravy, it had a richer, meatier flavor. I think they may have given the most gravy so far. It’s all about the gravy.
Shellie: The mashed potatoes were ok. They were better than other places, but it was undeniable by the flavor that they were instant.
JoeJoe: I will likely never go back to Church’s chicken. It is not just about the food. It was not a good experience. It was also the most expensive so far. None of the employees knew what they were doing in the store.
Shellie: Overall, I probably wouldn’t go back to Church’s chicken. But I enjoyed trying it.
Joejoe: I enjoyed trying it. I feel sicker than the other two. I can’t say I ate good food. The one thing it had going was that the biscuit was better the KFC’s biscuit.
The Hamsa is a feminine symbol of protection and energy. On the inside is the symbol for the divine feminine. It also has an evil eye. It is like I have something watching my back all the time. It is done in my eye colors. It’s like I have an extra eye back there.
Spider Gwen. She was the first comic book I ever read. I still have it, and I had it signed by the creator of Spider Gwen. I showed him my tattoo, and he said, “Oh, shit.” He loved it.
Captain Marvel. She is my favorite superhero. I connected to her. When she came out in the ’60s, she was very scantily clad, wearing the classic bikini outfit. Now she has been modernized and has a full-body suit. She is taken more seriously as a female superhero, which I like about her.
Maleficent. I am a big Disney fan. I have been since I was five years old. Maleficent is my favorite character. I also play Dungeons & Dragons. The dragon is from Dungeons & Dragons. It’s done in Maleficent coloring. This represents both my love for Disney and my nerdy side.
I did not get the story about this particular tattoo. If you are the owner of this tattoo, please get in touch with me, and provide the story of this tattoo!
This is Kentucky fried chicken (KFC) review. Here is my previous review of Bojangles.
I had not been to KFC, I think, in more than 20 years. I don’t have a good reason why except I just remember not liking it.
I tried to use a coupon, but the coupon was for dark meat only. I ordered a three-piece combo: 2 pieces of original and one piece of extra crispy. It came with a drink and a side of taters and gravy. I then order a small side of fries and mac and cheese. Total spent: $15.56
The KFC did not have a ton of people there. The people working there were friendly. The person working did look for a coupon for me but had no luck.
The food coming out of the box did not look great. These little plastic containers just looked cheap.
Shellie did the review with me. This is her pre-thoughts on KFC.
Shellie: KFC comes with preconceived notions about it being particularly unhealthy, ingrained in me since childhood when I wasn’t allowed to eat fried chicken.
Joejoe: The chicken was good! I was surprised. The original chicken was a cohesive unit. The flavors went all the way through the chicken. The extra crispy was also delicious and had more of a spicy flavor. The chicken was better than Bojangles.
Shellie: I got a white meat breast just like at Bojangles. KFC’s chicken flows together better than the Bojangles. The white meat is less dry. The breading is more bready. It’s greasier than Bojangles, though, contributing to my regretting of life choices.
Joejoe: The biscuit was garbage. It was both hard outside and doughy inside. We did not finish the one biscuit between the two of us. Shellie: Biscuit smells good, but that’s all it has going for it. It’s a little bread brick with no flakiness whatsoever. It should be brought to protests for throwing at your detractors.
Joejoe: The fries were super good. The correct crispy, like they are fried in meat fat. KFC has upped their game on the fries. Comparing them to Bojangles: Bojangles fries may be healthier and have a nice cajun seasoning. If you want just tasty fries, KFC is the clear winner here. Shellie: These are doubled fried, tripled fried, with breading. Amazing. The best part of the meal.
Joejoe: The mac and cheese was delicious. Noodles were the correct texture. The cheese somehow had a stronger cheese flavor. Also, a winner ahead of Bojangles. Shellie: Gummy. I don’t want to eat it.
Joejoe: Taters and Gravy: I first want to point out that the presentation is not good. When I looked at them, they looked like something from the future where there is no food. They feed you whatever they mashed together. However, the taters and gravy were good. The flavor was more consistent than Bojangles. It felt like I was again eating a more cohesive food. I enjoyed them. Shellie: They have spent many decades perfecting these. Much better than Bojangles. But I’m still not a huge fan of mashed potatoes.
I am shocked that I enjoyed my KFC experience. I am also not feeling quite as sick after eating. I would not say I am feeling great, just not as bad. The price is higher by about 16%. This is not a huge difference, but it does affect my experience.
Shellie: I feel a bit grosser after eating KFC than I did after Bojangles, like my arteries aren’t doing so well. Bojangles chicken tastes like an occasional treat. KFC tastes like a lifetime of bad choices. You don’t go to KFC because your life is going well.
Joejoe: Currently, KFC is the winner. That being said, if I was getting a chicken biscuit, I would go to Bojangles. KFC is a much better biscuit to throw at people, which is the only good thing to do with them.
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