You've Met With A Terrible Fate, Haven't You?

I was four years old, and my aunt and uncle gave me socks and underwear for my birthday. I sat on the steps and sulked. How could the two people I idolized most give me socks and underwear?! They sat there deadly serious as I felt the tears well up in my eyes, and made no move to stop me as I took off to sit on the steps and silently lament this ultimate betrayal. They then brought out their real gift to me -- a Super Nintendo. I didn’t realize it then; but they had given me an escape from the endless fights between my parents.

A couple of months later, my uncle brought over The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The game was frustratingly hard, but the monsters and the world were just so damn cool. The world of Hyrule was unlike anything I had ever seen before, and the score is something I still listen to as an adult. I could only get so far without help, so I would periodically reset my file. I would sit next to my uncle and watch awestruck as he maneuvered through the dungeons and defeated Ganon. Once he beat the final boss I repeatedly attempted to make it further into the game, but always hit a wall. I would load up my uncle’s file and attempt to best Ganon, but I could never figure it out.

Years passed and video games became a way to switch off the noise around me. They were a bonding experience between my uncle and I. From the world of Donkey Kong Country, to the frustratingly difficult Disney games, we played through a long list of titles. Those days were a lifetime ago, but I can recall them with such clarity. They’re a treasured memory I hope to keep forever.

We moved further away. I saw my uncle less and less, and things at home started to get tense. My parents fought more frequently, my father was home less often, and things were reaching a boiling point. I got a Nintendo 64 for Christmas. This was well after Ocarina of Time came out, but just in time for Majora’s Mask. I never got into the hype of OoT until my early twenties, but Majora’s Mask became an obsession. I spent hours making sure I collected every mask, unlocked every secret; and then my family imploded.

My parents split up, and my brother, mom, and I moved in with my grandparents and uncle. I switched schools, knew no one, and was picked on constantly. When I got home from school, my uncle and I sat and played, but now he watched most of the time. It kind of became therapy. We would talk about what was going on in my life while saving Termina. The very first line of the game, “You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?” resonated with what was going on in my life, but my uncle did his best to create the stability that wasn’t there.

He never got the hang of the N64 controllers, but we did dust off the SNES and replay A Link To the Past, and I finally beat it for the first time. My uncle and LoZ got me through one of the hardest points of my childhood.

When I finally decided to get my tattoo I was thirty, trying to do the best for my family, and feeling like I was failing miserably. To top it off, I had torn my rotator cuff in a workplace injury, was stuck at home, and feeling completely useless. I was at another low point, and didn’t know how to get out of it. My uncle could tell I was struggling, and despite having a family of his own, made time to make sure I was doing ok. I did my best to keep going for my kids and wife, because I needed to do everything I could to get better for them. It took a lot of time, therapy, and medication for me to even start to get back into a decent state of mind, but I was determined. As I began to feel like myself again I started to piece together exactly what I wanted my LoZ tattoo to look like, but couldn’t figure out exactly what it should be. I was playing Smash Bros. with my son one day and going through the alternate costumes for Link, when I came across the Fierce Deity outfit, and it came to me.

My tattoo, a gray Triforce, and coloured Majora’s Mask is not only an homage to the two games that will always be dearest to me, but as a reminder of a tumultuous time in my life, and the person who helped get me through it. For me, it signifies that even though I may feel like a terrible fate has befallen me, as long as I have WISDOM, COURAGE, and the POWER to push through (the Triforce, of course) I’ll always persevere.