Timothy Pate

I got my second tattoo finished today! Here it is next to the original sketch I drew:

It’s on my right ribs, so the image is a bit distorted since I’m raising my arm to show the entire piece. I got it done by Matt Kolling at Uptown Tattoo — check them out if you’re looking to get work done in Minneapolis.

After moving away from Colorado after college, I wanted to get something to remind me of where I grew up. The C at the top is from the Colorado State Flag. The mountain below is Pikes Peak, a fourteener I’ve climbed near where I was born. The rock formations are based on the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, where I went hiking with my family all the time. The tree and pinecones are blue spruce (the State Tree of Colorado) and the flowers are Columbines (the State Flower).

When I was in high school, I couldn’t wait to get out of Colorado — and then I went to Colorado State University. But by the time I graduated from college, I had come to appreciate how lucky I was to have spent so much time in the Centennial State — and then I moved to Washington, D.C.

Like all states, Colorado has its problems. But its nature is perfect, and I’ve seen nothing else like it anywhere else in the country. This tattoo is an ode Colorado’s flawless beauty.