Rotterdam 1982
Had an apartment in Fredrikstad with my girlfriend whom I had gotten together with again. The first salary was supposed to be sent to her, money for rent and so on. Instead I received a fax that evening from her, saying that she had left home to go to sea on another ship.
I had a few drinks and was now walking along the pier on my way to town, angry as hell. And I said to myself that I’d spend the rent on a drugs and a tattoo, when suddenly God spoke directly to me saying don’t do it, my body was not to be marked in that way. I turned around with my fist towards heaven and shouted “I’ll do what I want”
Got tattooed and that was not to be the first, every tattoo had a meaning to me. My plan was to get covered all over. Was very proud of them and spent a lot of time showing them off, was not ashamed.
In Texas I received a certificate saying that my new tattoo was guaranteed ten years after death.
After five months onboard returned to Fredrikstad to our apartment, my girlfriend would still be a week later. Well that became two weeks and I’d blown a fortune on drugs and living the life when she finally returned. She seemed so distant, found out the next morning that she had been beaten up and raped while visiting onboard another ship in port. I said something stupid and was thrown out, the life spiral had only one way for me and that was down.
Was so high all the time so that numbed a lot of feelings, left after a few days to join another ship.
But after I got saved, and a renewed conscience. O, how I wish that I,d listened to Him at that time. I remember asking God to remove them from my body but that was not to be. Today they are ugly reminders of a life that is more or less forgotten, praise God.