Tattoo #5 – Aruba: Random Flights & Real Freedom
March. The spring semester was peaking in stress levels, and my friends and I were grinding like our future depended on it because it did.
At this point, Tattoo #5 came a few months after the last one. Between full-time coursework and being a bartender, there wasn’t much time for ink. But that was about to change.
The Crew
I was deep into my college years in New York. My inner circle was tight. Sanllery and Irelys (close friends and classmates) and I. The three of us started our college journey together, and against all odds, we earned both our bachelor’s and master’s degrees together.
College was no joke. Sanllery and Irelys wouldn’t have gotten through without me, and I damn sure wouldn’t have earned my master’s without them. The workload, especially later during the pandemic for our master’s, was brutal. No one makes it through something like that alone.
The Breaking Point
It was a Sunday night in March, just one of those typical chaotic homework marathons. Irelys and I were rushing to finish and submit our assignment before the midnight deadline, exhausted, drained, and on edge. But we made it. Submitted on time. Barely breathing.
Then she looked at me and said four words that would shift everything:
“We need a vacation.”
Booking the Escape
Now, most people say that and mean “eventually.” But Irelys wasn’t just dreaming, she was dead serious. She knew I was a retired Marine and a world traveler. She didn’t need permission. She was waiting for action.
So I grabbed my phone and did what I always do when it’s time to escape: pulled up Kayak Explore.
Within minutes, I found round-trip dirt-cheap flights from New York to the Caribbean. One deal stood out:
Aruba.
Most people spend months planning a Caribbean getaway. Not us. This was Sunday night, and by Wednesday at 11 AM, we landed on Aruba, skipping class and heading toward six days of perfect weather, blue water, and total freedom.
Finding Myself in Aruba
That trip changed everything.
At the time, I was still going by my legal name: Ilan Rivera. But Aruba helped me see something more profound. During the military, your last name becomes your first name, and Rivera reminds me of that life. Of trauma. Of being property of the U.S. government.
I used to joke, “Rivera is my slave name.”
But deep down, I meant it.
In Aruba, something shifted. I started to feel what freedom could really be. The sun, the energy, the water! It gave me clarity I didn’t know I needed.
The Tattoo
It was the most spontaneous tattoo I’ve gotten to this day.
Booked Sunday → Landed Wednesday → Tatted by the weekend.
And that’s the exact energy it represents.
Tattoo Location: Original shop closed
Represents: Spontaneity, identity shift, absolute freedom
The tattoo is a simple outline of Aruba, but inside are four characters:
II3A
I = Ilan (me)
I = Irelys
3 = March, the 3rd month of the year
A = Aruba
That’s it. Minimal. Intentional. Free.
It reminds me to stay spontaneous. To book the flight. To skip the routine. To go where the moment takes you.
Dushi
There’s a word in Papiamento, which is Aruba’s native language, that sums up the feeling:
Dushi.
It means sweet. Good. Pleasant. Lovely. It means a lot of things, but only everything right about life.
It stayed with me so profoundly that I would eventually take that word and make it part of my new identity.
But that’s another story.
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Want more stories like this?
Check out the full tattoo journey from the beginning — Tattoo #1 started it all in Mumbai.
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(Link: Tattoo #1)
