If you had told me two or three years ago that I’d have a tattoo within a few years, I wouldn’t have believed ya. I’ve always thought they (for the most part) were cool. I’ve seen really awesome and creative ones, but I’d personally never been interested in getting one myself. I remember in high school I said something along the lines of “If I ever get a tattoo, it’d probably be of the Deathly Hallows or The Dark Mark from Harry Potter.” My, how things change.

I knew coming into the Disney College Program that I’d want to leave with a tattoo. I don’t know why specifically the Disney Program made me feel like it was time to finally get one, but it did. I knew that it would be such a memorable experience that I would like to have something to commemorate that time. But I also knew I would have to get it near the end of my program since Disney has a strict rule about having visible tattoos.

Personally, I wanted a tattoo that had a lot of meaning to me. I know plenty of people may get tattoos that are cool, but they may not exactly represent anything meaningful to that person. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, but for me, personally, I wanted something with a lot of meaning.

Originally, at the start of the program, I thought maybe I could design something cool that resembled the Disney brand. Maybe something with Mickey Ears. But I could never really design anything that looked good enough to have on my body forever. I also started to have second thoughts on having a logo/brand permanently etched into my skin.

So that became the biggest issue: what can represent the Disney Program without being a logo or brand? Well, the apartment number my roommates and I were all randomly placed in was 3005 - the title of a great song by one of my favorite artists, Childish Gambino. And luckily enough, most of my roommates were fans of his too!

Part of the chorus to the song “3005” goes “I’ll be right by your side, till 3005.” I felt it perfectly summed up my experience here at Disney, mainly the relationships. I’ve met lifelong friends here from all around.

I started to draft up some ideas on Adobe Illustrator. I got attracted to the idea of Roman Numeral tattoos. So I googled what “3005” would be written in Roman Numerals. Turns out, it wasn’t as cool as I thought. It was “MMMV.” There’s just too many M’s in a row, and there’s no I’s or X’s to make it more appealing. But I kept designing anyway, hoping there’d be something that I would like to have.

Once I came up with a few I liked, I had one of my roommates draw it on my arm so I could have a general idea of the size and placement. I originally thought about getting one on my wrist (that way, I could hide it with a watch or something when I had to work). Then, I slowly gravitate more towards having it placed on my bicep. I don’t exactly know why, but I just liked the placement more there.

I showed my friends and cousins the designs I drew up to get their opinions on which typeface, style, etc. they preferred. I leaned more towards the Futura-style one with thin lines. It looked more simple and beautiful to me. But it also made me think of Maroon 5. It was pretty much unanimous among my friends and cousins that the styles with serifs were better. Still, no matter which one they preferred, and even when it came to the one I preferred, I wasn’t 100% happy with the design.

It wasn’t until literally the night before I would get the tattoo that I changed my mind. I threw away the Roman Numerals idea and started designing cool ways to write “3005.”

When I finally started to like the concept, I kept debating between two similar ones: one had the “5” slant not connecting with the “0,” and one in which it did. In the end I decided to go with the version that did, and my roommate also preferred that one.

So it finally came time to get the tattoo. And I was definitely nervous as hell. None of my roommates were free to go with me, so I ended up asking one of my co-workers/friends to come. She had a few tattoos as well, and gave me good feedback on my tattoo and also on how to take care of it. I was shaking nervously until it finally came time to lay down and get it done. I had to hold my friend’s hand while I was getting it. It really didn’t hurt as bad as I thought. The tattoo artist told me it would feel like someone’s scatching on you. It pretty much did feel like scratching, except more painful. Still, it was tolerable and I didn’t cry like I thought I would. Surprisingly, it was more painful when the tattoo artist outlined the design than it did when he had to color in the blacks.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my tattoo. And I really liked the place and the service I went to. It makes me wonder how I would’ve felt if I had gone with the Roman Numerals design, which I wasn’t totally happy with. Whatever the case, I’m happy. And now the tattoo is finally done healing from scabbing and peeling.

There’s something liberating about being bold enough to have a permanent mark on you - something to commit to forever.