6 • Creation and Co-creation

The next chapter of a life-long art piece has begun.

For most of my life, I’ve found tattoos beautiful and (sometimes) cool… but I never had any interest in getting one myself. There wasn’t an idea or message I felt I wanted immortalized in a life-long commitment on my body.

Until Love First.

Creation

When I had my vision of Love First, I knew this was going to be the focus for the rest of my life, and so the idea of something permanent on my body, related to love, became meaningful. Appealing. Exciting, even.

The only question left was: what?

Love First as a philosophy is built on a set of principles: everyday practices that foster a universal kind of love wherever and whenever we use them. My first tattoo idea was a “skeleton key” concept that would wrap around my arm, and the principles of love would be the parts of that key. But, the list of principles kept growing, eventually past 21, so this wasn’t going to work lest I wanted the tattoo to cover my entire arm and continue into my back. (I considered it, but no.)

Four of the most foundat…