My twelfth tattoo was done by Bryan Randolph at Spider Murphy’s in San Rafael, California.  It is a quote from the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. I’ve been wanting the tattoo for over a year, but after going through some really difficult times recently, it has come to mean more to me than it ever could have before. He explains the meaning of it best: “You can only recognize your happiness against the background of suffering. If you have not suffered hunger, you do not appreciate having something to eat. If you have not gone through a war, you don’t know the value of peace. That is why we should not try to run away from one thing after another thing. Holding our suffering, looking deeply into it, we find a way to happiness.”

My twelfth tattoo was done by Bryan Randolph at Spider Murphy’s in San Rafael, California. 

It is a quote from the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. I’ve been wanting the tattoo for over a year, but after going through some really difficult times recently, it has come to mean more to me than it ever could have before.

He explains the meaning of it best: “You can only recognize your happiness against the background of suffering. If you have not suffered hunger, you do not appreciate having something to eat. If you have not gone through a war, you don’t know the value of peace. That is why we should not try to run away from one thing after another thing. Holding our suffering, looking deeply into it, we find a way to happiness.”