This is one of my tattoos. I got it on the fifth anniversary of my Web site iwilldare.com. It’s the Chinese characters for the words I and Dare.
You really gotta love a song to get its title (apparently the Chinese have no character for the word will) permanently etched into your body. And I really love this song.
I think it was sometime in 1999 when I decided “I Will Dare” was my song. I had decided that I was going to start one of them new-fangled blogs and was in search of a domain name. This was back before the days of blogspot or typepad or livejournal or you get the idea.
I spent weeks brainstorming domain names with my friend Orange Tim. My first choice, jodi.com was taken. So I came up with all kinds of stupid names and to each one, he would reply, “Really, is that it?”
And I would say, no. Because it wasn’t. Then while sitting at work answering phones for my crappy customer service job, I e-mailed him three words.
I Will Dare.
That’s it! He replied, and he was right. It was absolutely perfect. The song is absolutely perfect.
From the moment you hear that opening jangly bit of I Will Dare, it’s hard to repress a smile. The song is so light, so happy, and so unWesterbergian in its optimism.
I wish I could put into words the way my heart beats differently every single time I hear this song. Every time. Even after hearing this song roughly 93,191 times (it’s the ring on my phone), I still smile and bob my head.
What I love is how in the beginning it’s so tentative, “if you will dare, I might dare.” But by the end, it’s all fuck it, “if you will dare, I will dare.” It’s just hopeful, and I think that’s what I love the most.
You don’t even know how happy this post made me. I Will Dare was the first ‘Mats song I ever heard and at that moment, I knew they were something special. I’ve been planning on getting some sort of IWD tattoo, haven’t decided what yet, but I love your idea. Thanks for posting this!