George Clooney’s tattoos in From Dusk Til Dawn are among my all-time favorites.

I got my first tattoo well into my Twenties – a stylized bat, red and black, on my right upper arm – back in 1995 or 1996. Somewhere in Toms River after getting lost trying to find Seaside Heights where I’d never been but assumed was a good place to find a tattoo parlor. Myself and two friends had been talking about it for a couple of weeks and one of them finally decided she was ready so we headed south on the Parkway that following weekend. This was the same friend I’d moved to Miami Beach with years earlier who’d lasted two months shorter than I did. Not surprisingly, she ended up being the only one that left the parlor untouched that day, having lost her nerve after watching us get ours done.

The bat, a slightly modified version of one I picked out of the artist’s portfolio, was actually my nod to Batman! Realizing I’d be seen as a total moron if I got the actual Bat symbol, I wanted something that would evoke the same idea for me when I looked at it but not be so obvious to others. Mission accomplished and, unlike many people and their first tattoos, I still like it to this day.

Salomé and I have been talking about getting new tattoos for a couple of years now, as well as fixing the ones we got on our honeymoon in Mexico. Mine, on my left upper arm, a tribalish band with her name bracketed in the middle, is smaller than I’d like it. The fact that I didn’t have it go all the way around my arm seems especially lame now, too, but I wasn’t up for that kind of pain. It was a purely spontaneous idea, too, and admittedly a little scary as we weren’t sure how wise it was getting them done in tourist-ridden Cancun, in the midst of unsupervised teenagers getting roses and Tweety Birds scratched into their skin.

The pain wasn’t really that bad – especially not compared to Salomé’s who got her’s at the base of her spine – and as I have a certain fascination with intense pain, it wasn’t a big deal at all. But that part of your arm, underneath your bicep, is particularly sensitive and, from what I’ve heard, one of the more painful tattoos to get.

As a result, WHAT exactly I want to do with that one, I haven’t really figured out yet. All that way around, for sure. Thicker, for sure. Repositioning Salomé’s name, for sure. Perhaps a second, overlapping band in red?

Or, leave it alone for now and get a new one? What and where, though, is an even bigger quandry.

Since we’ve decided not to take a trip for this anniversary – our 6th! – we’ll probably take care of our tattoos instead. That gives me seven weeks to figure it out.

Suggestions?