This post is dedicated to Finn and Jake, because I saw so much of them this weekend in downtown Salt Lake among all of the other comic-book fans crawling around the city. I just think they may be the ones who appreciate and understand why I have my Flash tattoos.
When I was a kid of about 9 or 10, I liked to run everywhere. I imagined I was fast as hell too. It didn’t last forever (ha!), but yeah, I loved to run. My family lived in Taipei back then, and partly because that was (and is) a very populated and dense place I imagined that the crowds of people were amazed at how fast I was going… but I knew I had lives to save (and taxis to get run over by, but that is another story…)
I also loved comic books back then, and the Flash was the perfect hero to satisfy both of my interests. I mean, I’d make costumes for all sorts of heroes out of paper-bags, but I loved the Flash so much that my mom actually had a seamstress make me my very own orange Flash outfit (pictured above).
As I got older the Flash just became a fond memory, and I had to retire and put away the costume. Years later, when I was in my mid-to-late 20s, my mom had the costume framed (also pictured above) and gave it to me for Christmas. Made me very happy, and I hae had it hanging on my wall ever since. Even though time has turned me into the slowest man alive to be sure, I may need to come out of retirement someday and that costume’ll come in handy.
Anyway, over time I came to understand that I needed to get a Flash tattoo to commemorate these fond memories. It wasn’t until just a couple of years ago, but I finally had the Flash flash put on my left ankle by the lovely Sarah De Azevedo of Oni Tattoo. But I wasn’t quite done yet, because I wanted to celebrate Flash dualism by getting the Black Flash chasing the Flash around my ankle. There probably isn’t room for Professor Zoom or Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick…
