Uh, the only instance of which I’m aware that anybody has ever “had to get a tattoo right now” was in Nazi concentration camps (and the like,) and they were not given a choice of subject matter. As I can’t imagine the scenario in which I had no say in having something etched on my body, but I could choose what was depicted, I don’t think it’s a meaningful question.
I’ll take any of those pre-Arthritic days in which I was brimming with energy all the time.
Know its inevitability. Ride its currents.
After getting freaked out, realize that being freaked out changes nothing. Might as well see the unfolding of an uncertain event as the unwrapping of a gift.
That was so long ago. Since then, I’ve come full cycle to find that I’m not.
“You’re living in a dream world, a simulation, nothing is real.”
Can’t really change anything (see: Novikov Self-Consistency Principle) and I don’t believe people can enact wisdom until they are ready (i.e. whispering wise words in the ear will not make a wiser person,) and so I’m left with fucking with ourself.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure we die in a reasonably robust mental and physical state.”
I don’t want my future self to get comfortable with the idea of pooping ourself in bed or forgetting the few people we know just because he’s gotten more cowardly about death in its proximity.
The best advice I ever got was, “Don’t give unsolicited advice!” It surprised me a little because I wasn’t even talking to the guy. A stranger just came up to me out of the blue and shouted it in my face… but it is wise advice.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 