The CTR represents the expression "Choose the Right," a common thread in the ideology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly referred to as the Mormon church.
In essence, Matt explained, it means "follow the right path". Its akin to a mantra eschewing sinful activities frowned upon by the church like drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, doing drugs, and, yup, you guessed it: getting tattooed.
Matt finds great power in this tattoo because it represents an oxymoron: the letters CTR stand for a way of life that is contradicted by the fact that they have been tattooed on flesh. It would be like a Jewish person having the phrase, in Hebrew, "You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or imprint markings upon you: I am the Lord" tattooed on them. As a tattooed Mormon, this is Matt's way of addressing,and coming to terms with, the disparity between faith and his love of tattoos.
This was tattooed by a friend of his in Ogden, Utah.
Thanks to Matt for sharing his ink with us here on Tattoosday!
2 comments:
About that "You shall not make gashes" tattoo. You can see one just such tattoo here:
You Shall not Tattoo, Tattoo
It probably happened unintentionally, though, unlike Matt's tattoo.
If you travel to El paso,TX or up to alamogordo- las cruches, NM dont flash that tattoo the crypts around here have CTR tattooed on thier necks and chest weird i know- peace out from a NM Mormon working on full sleeves laters-sean
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