Every day in October I will be rocking an A To Z Blog Challenge about my terribly terrific tattoos. Every day a new letter. Today is October 16 so the letter of the day is M (I’m taking Sundays off. Columbus Day too!)

O is for O’Canada

O’Canada. One of my myriad of travel tattoos. Sometimes my tattoos are like little postcards on my body, markers to remind me of my adventures and wanderlust… This particular one comes from a trip I had to Toronto to see my beloved Yankees take on and trample our northern neighbors the Blue Jays. I knew it was going to be a good trip when I was able to secure a room at the Toronto Harbor Castle, the scene of Keith Richards’ legendary heroin bust.

Great trip it was. I took in plenty of baseball and dim sum with my homie James “Guitar” Shields and had a fantastic few days wandering the city. I even got to see Valient Thorr. Didn’t run into the Trailer Park Boys. That was a different trip. Bubbles!!!!!

I’ve alway had an affinity for Canada and the Canucks who call it Mama. From my first trip to Quebec City with my 8th grade French class, when I was kicked out of the country and told not to come back until I was 18 for setting my room in the city’s finest hotel, the Chateau Frontenac, on fire, I knew the land would provide a warm hive from which I would launch several more bad ideas. But those are all stories for another post. The second day of this particular trip was spent strolling around Kensington Market, foraging for fruits and trolling the thrift stores, I passed a “clean enough” looking tattoo shop and the urge struck. “I love Canada, I thought… and I have some time to kill. Time for a Maple Leaf tattoo.” So that’s what I did. Wonder if it would be enough for me to one day emigrate, or at least get some of their sweet socialized health care in the event I get sick. Can’t wait to find out.

This was the first tattoo I ever had that got infected. First of 2. That’s a batting average better than any Blue Jay in history.