Before I go any further, I should probably back up and talk about how unique the SoftLayer culture is. In 2010, a few of the SLayers in Dallas got SoftLayer-sponsored tattoos from an artist that visited our headquarters. We have a Facebook album of SoftLayer tattoos that features some of that ink.

I work in SoftLayer’s Seattle facility, so I wasn’t able to join in on the fun in the Dallas office, but Lance extended the offer to anyone in the company that wanted to get a tattoo. As one of the few guys in Washington that has any ink on my body, I said that if the unofficial SoftLayer tattoo artist would come to Seattle for us, I’d get it done. There wasn’t enough demand to justify a trip from Texas, but Lance said I could expense it if I wanted to join the club … The only requirement was that the tattoo had to incorporate SoftLayer in some way.

I had a few ideas, but nothing struck me as a perfect design for SoftLayer Seattle. When I was in Lahaina, I stopped by and visited Tony, a tattoo artist at Skin Deep Tattoo who did a cover up for me a few years ago. He asked me how work was going, and I started telling him about how much I loved SoftLayer’s culture and how the company has grown so substantially in just a few short years … And he was impressed that we’ve added eleven more data centers on three different continents in the four years since we expanded from Dallas into Seattle.

I told him about Lance’s tattoo offer, and we came up with this amazing SoftLayer Seattle design:

I know it’s a little crazy to get a work-inspired tattoo, but there aren’t many places where you hear people saying things like “Three Bars for Life!” as you walk through the office … I’ve just taken “Three Bars for Life” a little more literally in the form of a permanent tattoo. I’ve had a wonderful last four years, and can’t wait for the many more to come.

3BFL!

-Bill

P.S. If you don’t love the company you work for this much, you can always join the SoftLayer team. We’re growing like crazy, and we’re looking to add a lot of SLayers to the crew.