The "This Might Be A Stupid Question, But...." Thread

[Virg]

I personally put zero credence in dreams as a window into future events, but I do think they're a good way to get a glimpse of your subconscious.  So, these whacked-out dreams may be your way to tell yourself that there's some reason to believe that something might go wrong.  I doubt any such failure is going to be as bad as what you've seen behind your eyelids but maybe you'd do well to think about the artist who's going to handle it.  Do you trust him/her explicitly to get it right and do you know his/her work well?  I'd give it all a bit of thought to see if there's any reason running around inside you to rethink the tattoo, but failing that then I'd just say it's random weird and go on as normal.  You can always do the safe route of having the artist draw it on before inking it to be sure you both agree with the result, although that'll probably cost more due to the extra time.

Virg

[CakeBeret]

I do trust the artist completely. He's done work for myself, DH, and others I know before. His process is to put the design on you in a temporary tattoo (one of those water-soluble stick-in things), have the customer approve it, and then ink it, so I'm not concerned on that front either. Plus the tattoo meets all my personal standards--meaningful, easily covered, and well thought-out. So I suppose I'll chalk it up to random weirdness. It was just the fact that I had three of these dreams that was beginning to weird me out.

[lilfox]

I personally put zero credence in dreams as a window into future events, but I do think they're a good way to get a glimpse of your subconscious. <snip>

Virg

Totally agree.  It's been on your mind a lot, very natural that it would come out in your dreams, especially if you tend to remember dreams.  Maybe it's a way for your subconscious to have a little fun trying out alternate scenarios.   

Or, it's a way for your brain to channel some other frustration or fear - for example, I've had dreams where I am ignored by a store clerk or disrespected in some way and I get angry and yell or otherwise try to take back control of the situation.  I usually realize that it's because I'm stressed about something else entirely, a real-life situation where I feel a bit powerless but I don't know how to solve it, so the dream is an emotional outlet of sorts.

[Tea Drinker]

Are you dealing with some other source of stress right now? Your brain might be grabbing the tattoo appointment and patching it together with "I am nervous about something." (I had bad dreams about missing a high school social studies test for at least a decade after I graduated.)

The other thing that occurs to me is that maybe your subconscious is having second thoughts about this particular tattoo. Maybe think about the symbolism, to the extent you can identify it. What you described doesn't sound like "I just really think it's pretty," which is part of the reason for one of mine.

[Elfmama]

I personally put zero credence in dreams as a window into future events, but I do think they're a good way to get a glimpse of your subconscious. <snip>

Virg

Totally agree.  It's been on your mind a lot, very natural that it would come out in your dreams, especially if you tend to remember dreams.  Maybe it's a way for your subconscious to have a little fun trying out alternate scenarios.   

Or, it's a way for your brain to channel some other frustration or fear - for example, I've had dreams where I am ignored by a store clerk or disrespected in some way and I get angry and yell or otherwise try to take back control of the situation.  I usually realize that it's because I'm stressed about something else entirely, a real-life situation where I feel a bit powerless but I don't know how to solve it, so the dream is an emotional outlet of sorts.

When I'm stressed, I have tornado dreams.  Usually I'm in a large public building with glass walls.  I try to make people get into cover, and they say "Oh, no, we never have tornadoes here." I can SEE the tornadoes, all around the buildings, and yet nobody else does.   

[kareng57]

I personally put zero credence in dreams as a window into future events, but I do think they're a good way to get a glimpse of your subconscious. <snip>

Virg

Totally agree.  It's been on your mind a lot, very natural that it would come out in your dreams, especially if you tend to remember dreams.  Maybe it's a way for your subconscious to have a little fun trying out alternate scenarios.   

Or, it's a way for your brain to channel some other frustration or fear - for example, I've had dreams where I am ignored by a store clerk or disrespected in some way and I get angry and yell or otherwise try to take back control of the situation.  I usually realize that it's because I'm stressed about something else entirely, a real-life situation where I feel a bit powerless but I don't know how to solve it, so the dream is an emotional outlet of sorts.

I agree, a lot of it is indeed the subconscious.  I thought I was doing "okay" a few months after my husband's death even acknowledging what would have been his birthday.

And I had one of the worst nights of my life - dream after dream of me blowing up at him over the stupidest things - like not putting his used dishes into the dishwasher right away (and I'm not exactly Suzie Homemaker myself).  Of course, it wouldn't take a rocket-scientist-psychiatrist to figure out that it was suppressed-anger over him "leaving".  Again, I'm functioning okay on a day-to-day basis, but there's no denying that there's still thoughts there.

I wouldn't worry too much about the tattoo since you're confident about the artist, but you can't help that concerns are on your mind.

[ladyknight1]

Lately, I have been working on polishing myself in professional situations, to make getting the next position up the ladder possible next year. One of the projects now underway is a redesign of my personal office. I am not going to use the overhead fluorescent lighting, instead I will use a few lamps. I am also having photographs I have taken printed in a large format, matted and framed for my walls.

I am dreaming about shopping for lamps every night. It is so stupid. 

[lady_disdain]

Recently, I have had recurring dreams that my high school diploma is not valid and I have to go back to school (even though I am a 32 year old professional, with an engineering degree and a career where no one could care less about my high school). I guess there are no equivalency diplomas in dream land.

[Betelnut]

Recently, I have had recurring dreams that my high school diploma is not valid and I have to go back to school (even though I am a 32 year old professional, with an engineering degree and a career where no one could care less about my high school). I guess there are no equivalency diplomas in dream land.

I had a dream once where I had to go back to first grade because of some kind of mistake somewhere.  Even in the dream, I was sitting there at a little desk thinking, "Oh, this is going to be so easy!"

[TootsNYC]

Documents can survive for very long times and ancient documents can be surprisingly familiar.

The Vindolanda letters give us a good idea of what life was like for Roman soldiers serving on Hadrian's Wall.  One that sticks in my mind was sent by a woman.  It tells the soldier that she has sent him, 'X pair of socks and Y pair of underpants'. 

There's also a whining letter from a kid who lived in Egypt about 200 BCE. His father had promised him a trip to Alexandria but, due to business pressures, had to renege on his promise and make the trip alone.  The letter may be over 2000 years old but every parent can relate to it.  The boy's letter essentially says,

YOU'RE THE WORST DAD IN THE WORLD AND I CAN NEVER TRUST YOU AGAIN !!!!

'
My husband loves to quote a business letter from ancient Sumer in which someone said, "You sent me lousy copper! What did I ever do to you, that you would send me such lousy copper. What did anyone from my city ever do to you, that you would send me such lousy copper."

[Elfmama]

Documents can survive for very long times and ancient documents can be surprisingly familiar.

The Vindolanda letters give us a good idea of what life was like for Roman soldiers serving on Hadrian's Wall.  One that sticks in my mind was sent by a woman.  It tells the soldier that she has sent him, 'X pair of socks and Y pair of underpants'. 

There's also a whining letter from a kid who lived in Egypt about 200 BCE. His father had promised him a trip to Alexandria but, due to business pressures, had to renege on his promise and make the trip alone.  The letter may be over 2000 years old but every parent can relate to it.  The boy's letter essentially says,

YOU'RE THE WORST DAD IN THE WORLD AND I CAN NEVER TRUST YOU AGAIN !!!!

'
My husband loves to quote a business letter from ancient Sumer in which someone said, "You sent me lousy copper! What did I ever do to you, that you would send me such lousy copper. What did anyone from my city ever do to you, that you would send me such lousy copper."

There is also a fascinating series of birch bark documents from medieval Novgorod in Russia.  They are the writing lessons of a child named Onfim, something VERY rare in early documents, since paper/papyrus/parchment was too expensive for a child to scribble on.  Birch bark, however, was essentially free.  Just peel it off the tree.  Onfim occasionally deserted his lesson to draw pictures:

[Thipu1]

There's also the student tablet from Ancient Egypt. I believe it may be in the Louvre.

At that time, students wrote their assignments on thin sheets of wood that had been whitewashed.  The teacher would correct the assignments by placing red dots over errors.

This particular student was either extremely lazy or dumb as a box of rocks.  The tablet bristles with red dots. In the margin, the exasperated teacher has written the New Kongdom equivalent of, ''NO, NO, NO!!!'

[lilfox]

Lately, I have been working on polishing myself in professional situations, to make getting the next position up the ladder possible next year. One of the projects now underway is a redesign of my personal office. I am not going to use the overhead fluorescent lighting, instead I will use a few lamps. I am also having photographs I have taken printed in a large format, matted and framed for my walls.

I am dreaming about shopping for lamps every night. It is so stupid. 

I do this with jewelry shopping and clothing shopping.  It is frustrating, slow, and when I finally find something I like, it's fictional!  I would be an awesome designer if I remembered what this stuff looked like when I was fully awake...  :-)

[Giggity]

How much credence do you give dreams?

None, actually. If dream-prophecy were a reliable indicator, dream prophets would be rich.

[mmswm]

Recently, I have had recurring dreams that my high school diploma is not valid and I have to go back to school (even though I am a 32 year old professional, with an engineering degree and a career where no one could care less about my high school). I guess there are no equivalency diplomas in dream land.

I've had a similar dream where I have to go back to high school because for whatever reason my math credits weren't valid and I didn't really graduate.  In real life, I have a master's in Mathematics, so it's weird that it's the math classes that I'm lacking in the dreams.