I’ve seen these words on knuckles before but it just fit who I wanted to be. I was always a negative “HALF EMPTY” type of person. I was an alcoholic with nothing going for me. I met a girl (my wife now) who always told me to stop being so negative. So, to help me remember to think positive and to always think of the better outcomes that could happen, I got HALF FULL on my knuckles. Now no matter what happens I just think “hey, the glass is always HALF FULL”. Life has been better ever since.
Hi World! My name is Hope and these are my knuckle tats. I was cursed with these bad boys at age 16, when I sobered up the next morning sometyhing in my gut told me knew I was pretty much fucked as far as the corporate job world was concearned.
They were originally a stick and poke tattoo ( the most primitive of tattoos : Needle, Thread, Indian Ink) and I thought in my little 16 year old brain it would be awesome to get Hope Full on them….I later found out hopeful has one L not two xD
When I turned 18 I went into the shop and got the second word changed to Fate , the T looks like an upside down cross (the only way to cover that damn L) again I screwed myself once again; I have even more mormons at my front door.
While surfing around the ‘net the other day, I found a set of knuckles posted by Bill Cohen on the excellent Tattoosday blog. Bill wanders the streets of New York City and talks to random strangers about their tattoos. With his permission I am reposting the knuckles and story here.
HALF FULL
Billy has several tattoos, but he chose this set of eight, each letter spelling out the message.
“It’s the endless question,” he mused, “of the glass being half-empty or half-full.”
“So,” I interjected, “you’re an optimist?”
On the contrary, he informed me, optimism does not come naturally to him. He “would like to be” more of a “glass half-full” person, but he has had his share of challenges, to say the least.
Billy has been clean for two years, after a long struggle with heroin addiction.
The letters on his fingers come together when he makes fists, and he acknowledged that he often has “to beat it into [his] head to think more positively”.
“By ourselves, we are not complete,” he said, and explained how this simple interaction, two strangers meeting and discussing a tattoo, it’s this kind of event that is what life is all about.
Billy was very positive, talking about a tattoo that grounded him and gave him the strength to live his life in a more fulfilling way.
I met Aaron here at the last Texas Rollergirls match as well. He says that he is a gambler, thus the Aces Full. The 901 referrs to the area code of Memphis, TN, his home town. The KAN is an acronym for Kings A Nuthin’, a group of friends out of Memphis. Apparently they predated the band Kings of Nuthin’.
