Betty Rocker: On Becoming a Healthy Lifestyle Jedi and Wielding a Flaming Sword
I got my first tattoo, a sleeve on my right arm, the year I was 31. "Go big or go home" is what everyone who hears that story always says to me. Ironically, people had been asking me if I had any tattoos since I was about 20. My crazy pink and black pixie haircut, love of adrenaline sports and rocker style, combined with a constant desire to bake healthy goodies and do food science had quickly earned me the moniker "Punk Rock Betty Crocker."
The idea that tattoos go hand in hand with Anime haircuts, motorcycles and certain other elements of (my) self-expression was so ingrained that I was never surprised by the question -- though the people who asked were surprised when I said no.
Naturally their second question was always, "Well, what are you going to get when you get one?" I never had an answer.
I always wanted one, or some... but even back then I considered wearing "permanent art" as an outward expression of part of my soul -- and didn't know who I was yet enough to know what part of myself to share with the world.
I started Officially Adventure Seeking at 19 when I left my full ride to Tufts University for a six-month volunteer stint in the Alaskan wilderness making birch syrup. I traveled around the West Coast for a few months, and slowly made my way back to upstate New York to work for a season in the family vineyard.
It didn't take me long to get restless in one place, so I packed up my faithful dog and drove my truck to the sunny south. I worked as a flight attendant in Fort Lauderdale, studied the culinary arts while serving in fine dining restaurants in Miami, went back to school for a couple more years, and took off again for six months to travel on next to nothing all over Thailand, Israel and Europe.
Given my wanderlust, you won't be at all surprised when I tell you that I met the artist who would pen my first ink at a motorcycle race in Hastings, Nebraska. He had tattooed a half sleeve on his right arm -- with his left -- that was unlike any art I'd ever seen. Turns out he was a painter turned tattoo artist, and his drawings and paintings combined a surreal beauty and fantasy world that spoke to the comic book nerd part of me who fights dragons and constantly carries a flaming virtual sword.
By then I had moved to Colorado -- I'd been dreaming of the Rockies since the first time I saw them on my way home from Alaska all those years ago -- and I had learned to trust the internal guidance system I'd been navigating with since I began my adventures.
Getting tattooed felt more like exposing the deeper part of me -- like the needle was uncovering what was underneath rather than leaving marks. Finding the right artist was just like finding the right key to a door you'd always wanted to unlock.
Get a chance to see beneath the surface and anyone who looks different on the outside has a lot more in common with us than we'd ever realize. Nobody questions Batman's bat mask, Superman's cape, the Hulk's green skin, or Storm's white hair -- their different appearance is a visible symbol of what they stand for, and we've seen behind their costume to the real people we can all relate to. Superheroes, the tattooed, the un-tattooed, tall, skinny, short, shredded, old or young -- the key to seeing their humanity lies in your ability to unlock your own.
Visit Betty Rocker online at http://thebettyrocker.com for healthy cooking and fitness adventures in a Jedi lifestyle of AWESOME
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