Growing a pair

Assuming Mark shows up on Tuesday when I'm getting Lucy finished, I think I'm finally going to ask him for real if he'll let me "work" for him. I use the term work loosely as it's more of a you answer the phone and deal with stupid people all night and you get the "family discount" on any work you want. So we'll see what happens. The worst he'll say is no and I guess that won't crush my entire universe. At least I'll have given it an honest go.

My rook seems to be doing better. I took 3 days' worth of antibiotics and gave it regular cleanings. It definitely doesn't hurt as much and I think there's only a little bit of swelling left. Piercings obviously aren't my thing. I think I'm just too damn lazy to take good care of them. The funny thing is, the two most difficult piercings to heal haven't given me any trouble. My dermal and my belly button are just peachy. So who knows? Maybe it's a sign I need more dermals ;). I've pretty much scrapped the idea of a lip piercing. If I can't make my nostril stud behave, I'm skeptical that I could make a lip stud behave. Plus, it would probably be way more trouble than it's worth to try to hide it for work. I guess if I end up working in a very liberal industry, I can get one. And if I stop being so damned lazy.

In other news, one of my friends who lives in Roanoke confirmed that Alex's is pretty much the best shop in town. So I feel more confident having Monica work on me. Her portfolio is great, but it's nice to have someone's opinion as well. Apparently another shop opened and is working up a good reputation, so I guess we'll see what that's all about. I keep telling myself I don't need to be tattooed twice at the convention. *slaps self*. Besides, the artist I wanted to do something on me never called or emailed me back, so I'm going to take it as a sign. And no one else on the list really does anything for me. I'll just take home my rockabilly skull and be a happy little girl.

Some People...

Some people really don't get it. Honestly. I got a message on my private blog about how I pay for all my tattoos. Okay, I'm pretty open about a lot of things. I'm all about spreading the tattoo gospel. Any idiot can tell that. However, that doesn't make it okay to get too nosey. Like asking about money. As I said in an entry long ago, you can ask me, but you can bet your ass you'll get charged more. When this person asked I simply answered "My job". She replied with "But don't you have to pay bills?". I was tempted to say "Yeah, and then I trade sex for tattoos". I mean, really, who gets that fucking nosey? May I note this is the same chick who felt the need to tell me where to get my Tim Burton heart "fixed" when she has, count 'em, zero tattoos. Talk about not even a leg to stand on. When you've got some decent work, we'll talk. Until then, don't trifle me.

Anyway, I opted for the "polite" answer and told her I budget so that I can pay for all my work. I may whine about not having money, but I always make sure I pay up those who earn it. I make sacrifices for my addiction. Maybe some people just don't get it.

Incidentally, I ran into three really drunk chicks in the bathroom at the hockey game. I ended up giving them a brief tour of my ink. One of them had just gotten something done today and it was already looking angry. I tried to explain in drunk speak that she needed to get lotion on it ASAP. It'll probably fall out, but it wasn't my fault. I do what I can.

Danse Macabre

Okay, the first version of this post was totally cracked out. Not good. Let's try this again, shall we?

I was browsing tattoo portfolios at work today because I was bored (in between getting yelled at for shit that isn't my fault) and it got me thinking about my back. My original thought was angel wings going the length of my back. However, upon closer examination, Mae is placed such that getting the left wing to look right would be very difficult. Like, it would have be super skinny before I wanted them to be super skinny. If that makes any sense. I'm not sure it does, but whatever.

Russ suggested previously I get something to do with dancing on my back since I already have the quote on my back about dance. I started with the concept of angels since I started with the angel wings. I bounced around the internet and then decided to go for more of a dance theme. For some reason, the concept of a danse macabre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_macabre) popped into my head. Lucy is somewhat dance macabre-ish, so it would work well to move from my arm to my back. As I did more research, I decided I really liked the concept of having a ballroom scene on my back with 5 dancing couples. I think some of the couples might have one partner as a skeleton and one partner as human in various ballroom poses. I also want "danse macabre" in the tramp stamp area. In a very pretty font of course.

I thought it also might be cool to have different artists work on different couples. I could have everyone's style but still make it look like a complete piece. I'd also want some kind of background to make it look like a ballroom. I'll probably discuss it with Russ and Mark on Tuesday and see what they think. They're my top two choices to work on a couple, then I'm batting around ideas for the other three. That's, of course, if I even end up getting 5 different artists to work on me. The level of skill is roughly the same and I may give some artists who aren't quite as good at skulls or skeletons a different pose or couple to work on. Ideally, I'd have two couples dancing near my shoulders, one in the center of my back over my current back piece, and two on my lower back, then "danse macabre" at the base.

I was trying to put pictures up, but the stupid thing won't work. *sigh* Maybe later. In the mean time Google "gothic puppet" or "Van Helsing" to get an idea of what I'm going for.

Adding On

So I've further solidified my latest ink idea. As I mentioned in the previous post, I thought I would use a quote rather than some kind of scroll work as the "lacy" part of the thigh highs. I stayed up way too late on Wednesday night looking for inspiration through music. A few lyrics seemed like they could work, but I wanted something that would go together. So unless I picked lyrics from the same artist, the odds that found two that would work together were pretty low.

As all good tattoo collectors and artists know, Google is your best friend. I simply searched "tattoo quotes" and through that found my inspiration. It's a quote from Oscar Wilde's play "A Woman of No Importance" and it goes "The only difference between a saint and a sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future". And then the light bulb came on, champagne rained from the heavens and I knew exactly what I wanted. So my right leg will read "Every saint has a past" and my left leg will read "Every sinner has a future". Once I got that set in my brain, more ideas just came flooding out.

I already wanted another pin up girl on my right thigh, so why not give her a sister? One the inside(ish) of my "saint" side will be a blonde pin up with angel wings and a halo in a blue or light green dress. On my "sinner" side will be a brunette with devil horns and a spaded tail in a red dress. The placement would be when I'm sitting indian style and you're looking down at my legs, you'd see them both clearly. I'm leaning toward Danielle Distefano as the artist. I know I've mentioned her before and how I really wanted her to work on me. I think her style would be suited to my vision. I want these two to be more old school than Mae & Lola. They're fabulous, but a little more modern in terms of style. I think Danielle's work has the right mix of old school and pretty. Plus, she does really great color work.

So the plan as it stands now would be finish all my works in progress (Lucy, Alice, & Lucius) by mid-late May and I'm gonna try to give myself a break for a month or so. Then I'll get Mark to cover up my foot piece around July 4. After that, I'll get him to do the base of the bows and quotes so that Danielle will have the base she needs to properly place the girls. So it'll probably be early August for the bows & quotes, then 3ish weeks of healing time, and starting the girls in early September. Knowing me, this timeline will probably get squished up into a much shorter period. In a perfect world, I will be able to give myself a month off just to give my body a break. In reality, it probably won't happen.

Crazy Little Thing Called Ink

Hey kids!

I came up with a totally crazy, but possibly totally awesome idea for more ink. That in a second. For those of you keeping score at home, the following dates will be noteworthy.

March 31-Finishing Lucy
April 18-Session 1 of Alice
May 8-Rockabilly skull at Roanoke Tattoo Festival
May 16-Session 2 (and hopefully finishing) Alice

I was originally supposed to go in for my second session of Alice on May 2, but I don't want to get tattooed 6 days apart. It's just a bad idea. I'm going to tell Phil when I get there for the first session. I feel guilty about it, but the convention was just such a great opportunity, I couldn't pass it up. In short, keep your eyes peeled around those times for pictures. There also may be another "look at me!" post once more work has been completed.

Now on to the crazy idea. I've been batting around the idea of getting bows tattooed on the back of my thighs. Kind of where thigh highs would hit. What I thought might be even better was to incorporate text looping around the rest of my thigh so it looks like a garter with a bow in the back, but the garter is made up of text. There could be a few obstacles to this.

One, thighs move a lot. Not as much as say, fingers or wrists, but enough that it could cause blow out and not age very well. I wouldn't be happy if the quote was unreadable in 5 years. Two, the text size may have to be quite large for it to age well. This would result in probably needing a larger bow, which may take up more space than I'm willing to take up. Three, I don't know what quotes I would use. I have so many ideas floating around in my head, it's hard to pick just two that I would want to have on me forever. I've got everything from song lyrics to Shakespeare to just generic quotes about love, life, and being awesome. The good news is I could probably get away with something fairly long as I have big thighs. For once, having big thighs actually proves to be useful! The idea is in its infancy and I know absolutely 100% that I want Mark to do it. No doubt in my mind. He did such a beautiful job with my back that I know he's up for the task. Plus, he could also make the bows look really good and fit perfectly with my personality. And I want him to do Beverly on my right thigh, so it's just easier to have the same artist working on two pieces in the same area.

So that's my current crazy idea. Whether or not it becomes a reality is debatable. I'll need to talk it over with Mark to see if it's even feasible. Though let's face it, he lets me get away with a hell of a lot more than most clients. If some random chick walked through the door wanting the same thing, he'd probably say no. Me? No problem. Ah the joys of a tight tattooist/client relationship. *gets all mushy*

Photo Whoring

And that's pretty much what I look like in all my inked glory. There were some of my foot and ankle, but they're not that great. I don't really much feel the need to show them off. I think I'll feel more confident when I've got a good cover up going on my foot and my calf piece.

Enjoy!

Odds and Ends

Sorry I haven't been updating regularly. Life gets in the way sometimes. :P

Lucy is healing great. If she's lost any color, I can't tell at all. She's also already to the peeling stage and it's only been a week. Downside is she's itchy as hell and having your whole arm itch can be deeply annoying.

Not much else new in my world. I still haven't gone out to Memorial to tell Phil my new idea. I guess I'll do that tomorrow afternoon. My only obligation is going to work at 6, so I'll have all afternoon to get out there and pitch the new plan.

The lump where my nose stud was is all but gone. I dunno if I'll be stuck with it forever, but I think it's still healing. The middle feels like a scab. I doubt I'll repierce it. It's just too much of a hassle. I think I'm ultimately too lazy to be good at healing piercings. Though my dermal turned out fine, so who knows?

Big Pimpin'

I can be such a shameless pimp-tress sometimes. I was on a separate website and someone (I believe she follows this blog. Wave if you do!) asked if anyone had any experience with Timeless Tattoo here in town. Being one of the few Atlantans, I jumped in with both feet and told her I'd never heard word one about them. They have good reviews on Yelp, hands down the most reliable review site on the interwebz, but it was mostly for the owner. Very little was mentioned about the other artists. I looked at the portfolio of the artist she'd picked and his work just didn't seem to suit what she wanted. So I told her to check out Overlord, Memorial 2, and Ink & Dagger. That, of course, got me to thinking who else I wanted to work on me.

I love Dave Kruseman's use of color. It's absolutely fantastic. I have no clue what I'd have him do, but it's so pretty to look at. I also really like Danielle Distefano's work. As I learned from Russ, she and another 13 Roses defector opened a shop in Grant Park. They actually had their big opening on Friday complete with $20 tattoos, which I missed. How come I always miss the tattoo sales? *pout* Anyway, I'd like to have her do something on me as well. So I may wander by at some point and poke my head in. It would help to have an idea first, though. I keep saying I'm going to take a break after I finish Alice, but who knows? I'm a sad, sorry addict.

The Healing Process

I had to retire my nose stud. Now I've got a lovely lump of scar tissue (not to be confused with a lovely lady lump, mind you) that I'm slowly trying to make go away. I'm taking this as a sign and I'm not going to attempt to repierce it. Obviously it doesn't work out for me. At least I'm not that heartbroken over losing it. That's the good news.

Meg and I are going to get her nose pierced this afternoon. I can also get Mark to see how my ditch is healing. I think it looks pretty good. I'm not really seeing any striations or wild variations in the color. It still looks pretty solid. I think I may have a bit of bruising though and she was pretty badly swollen last night. I'm gonna give her a bath when I get in the shower and get the last bit of excess ink off.

Speaking of, time to hop in the shower, confirm Melanie is there, and then head out.

Puppet Experience

Hopefully that's a good enough size for everyone. I'm still futzing with Blogger's image uploader. I is not computer savvy.

So yesterday was the big day. I got there early, as I am wont to do, and Russ was still in sketching mode. So I just hung out and was privy to the now infamous Russ Abbott "Hunky Male" calendar. ;) Once the obligatory paperwork, stenciling, and readying was done, it was time to put needle to skin.

It HURT. Not like the usual "this is unpleasant, but I can live with it". It was like slowly wiggle away kind of pain. I managed to keep it together pretty well. I forgot to breathe at some points and then had to refocus. My elbow and the ditch (inside of your elbow) were probably the worst. That's when I started making faces. We took two breaks, which for once I was actually grateful for. I'm still too stubborn to ask for one outright unless I honestly believe I'm going to die. And that's only happened once to date. I think this may win for second most painful after my sides. Goodie.

Russ was great. He would occasionally sing along with the music, which provided a nice momentary distraction. Everything you see in the picture was done in less than 3 hours (it was timed). There's only an hour and a half to two hours of work left, which made me happy. I'm not so much a fan of running around with unfinished tattoos, especially in visible places. However, I don't think it's that obvious that she's incomplete (much like Lucius). Also probably not easily visible in the picture is the amount of detail. Her braids have a ton of detail. Parts of her skirt actually look like fabric. Her nose and mouth also have a lot of soft details that also are probably hard to see. If you see me in person, I'll be more than happy to point them all out. Talent like that doesn't grow on trees, kids.

My second session is at the end of the month (March 31), probably just enough time for me to work up the emotional energy to do it again. I'm sleeping with saran wrap on my arm (per Mark and Shane's suggestion) to help the ditch heal better. It's uncomfortable, but if it means better healing in the long run, I'll suck it up. I only have to do it two more nights. Haven't broken it to the parents yet, but I figure I'll do it soon. They can't exactly talk me out of it. What's done is done. Plus, when I have my arms down by my sides you can only see her hand from the front and part of her skirt from the back. It's not like *BAM* giant tattoo!!

Overall, it was a really positive experience. The whole I&D crew is great and that's probably a reflection on their esteemed leader and proprietor.

Good Omens

Well, I had shitty day of sitting on the switchboard and dealing with idiots and assholes. To cheer myself up, it's time to blog about my favorite things.

First off, I start my puppet tomorrow afternoon. I'm really excited to see what Russ came up with. All I saw was a very, very rough sketch in Sharpie. Part of me is nervous that I won't like her face, but on the other hand, he's a very talented artist and he's gotten to see my personality. I think he'll do right by me (and her). I want a very specific feel to her and anything less I won't accept. I know that sounds kind of hardline, but if it's going to be on my body for ever and ever 'til death do us part, I want it to be a certain way. I lack the artistic talent to draw it out myself and sometimes giving a verbal description just doesn't hack it. I'll know for sure in 16 hours. I'm a ball of nervous and excited when I think about it. Unlike with Lucius, I'm fully committed. No second guesses here. Even if it does cause my parents to have a major cardiac event...

Secondly, Monica called me back. She was totally on board with my idea and I'll be tattooed by her for sure at the convention. My appointment is for 3:30 on May 8. Now I just need to make sure the BFF is gonna house me for the weekend. LOL! She was very honest with what she could do with my idea. When she asked about size I said 4 inches and she was like "It's gonna need to be bigger" and I was like "That's cool, I'm just guessing when I give it in inches". I put down a deposit, though I'm probably going to call back closer to time to get a better estimate on total cost. Her shop is hosting it, so it might be a bit on the pricey side. I'm really looking forward to it. I still have to tell Phil I need to reschedule again, but I'm not totally canceling and that's good...right? It'll just probably be June before we get started. Originally, my first session with him was supposed to be next Sunday. Life happens.

Now to chill out a bit and then work out. Hopefully that'll put me in a better mood.

Weddings and Conventions, Though Not Conventional Weddings

So my best friend is getting married in October. There happens to be a tattoo convention in her city in May. Can we say perfect time to multi-task, kids? I already have a voucher from Delta for a botched flight in December, so that would cover most of the cost of my flight. I don't need to worry about hotel because I can just crash with her. Really my only expenses would be admission to the convention, the price of the tat, and food. I'm waiting to hear back from both the BFF and the tattooist I want to go to. Which brings me to...

I want to see Monica from Alex's New Tattoo in Roanoke. She has a really great way of mixing the cute with the macabre. I think she'd be perfect to do a rockabilly style skull like the one Rhianna has:
http://rihanna-fenty.com/other/tattoos/skull-sign.jpg

I don't think I want the crossbones behind it, I want more detail, and I think I want a tiara rather than a bow. My parents have always called me "princess" so it would suit me more than a simple bow. It can definitely be completed in a few hours and should look really cute.

This also brings me to another issue. My appointments with Phil are April 18 and May 2. The convention is May 8-10. I have two options. I can either cancel completely and lose my deposit or reschedule for June-July-ish. Of course, that's assuming Monica can even take me. The convention is still two months away so I hope she's not totally booked yet. The shop is closed on Sunday and Monday as I discovered when I got the answering machine (way to put your hours online folks!), but allegedly she works tomorrow so hopefully she'll get the message and call me back ASAP. I'll probably miss the call since I'll be at work, but I'll keep an eye on my phone after 1pm.

In other news, I start my puppet on Friday afternoon. Then I have to go see Jason so he can check out my nose. The vitamin E was essentially gluing the stud to my nose. When I would try to clean it, I'd pull out more healing tissue trying to separate it. So now I'm just using the H20cean twice a day and a seriously diluted vitamin E and H2ocean mix once a day. I'm going to be a busy little bee on Friday. Then sometime over the weekend maybe I'll get up the guts to go to Memorial and reschedule for the second time with Phil. I also need to pitch the new idea, so I guess I'll just suck it up and do it then. *sigh* I'm sure he's going to think I'm a total flake, but such is life.

Walking Pin Up Girl

So I've been out of town since Thursday, thus the radio silence in my normal super active blog.

The more I've thought about this whole "ink girl" thing, the more it made me think that I may need to change my overall style a bit. I've always loved retro styling, especially the whole pin up and 40's-50's era glamour. I can't afford to redo my whole wardrobe right now, so I'm working with what I have. A lot of my shoes are very pin up and I've gotten a few accessories off eBay. I'm also playing around with make up to get the right "look" in my make up. I need a better shade of lip color, so I think I may play around with some new lip colors at Sephora. Kat Von D has a couple promising shades. I'll need to try out several, though one is described as "blood red" so that sounds promising. The only shade of lip gloss I have now is too pink. I think I need something that has more of an orangey undertone. I get paid on Friday, so maybe sometime over the weekend I can experiment.

I feel like I want to express more of the tattooed, stylized rockabilly, pin up chick. I'm okay with looking a bit costume-y and campy. I'll probably end up mixing more modern pieces with more retro pieces rather than going full out into retro. I've been debating about growing my hair out anyway and this pretty much sealed it for me. If I hate having long hair again, I can always chop it off. The short hair just doesn't look very pin up and a little too modern. Plus, I've had long hair for such a long time, that I kind of miss it. It also opens the door for a tattoo on the back of my neck. Teehee.

My tax return can't get here fast enough. It's going to finance all kinds of trouble. ;)

It's (Body) Art

So time to share a little dream of mine. I'd love to do an artsy nude photo series to highlight all my body mods. At minimum, I might apply to be a Prick girl (which is clothed, but the point is to highlight body art). I've wanted to do this for a while, but I don't know any photographers. I guess I could find one and pay him/her to do it. Though I admit, I'd rather do it with someone I know and am comfortable with. On the one hand, most people know the difference between art and porn. On the other hand, people can be so grossly closed minded that on the off chance they "got out" who knows what might happen?

I guess applying to be one of Prick's "ink girls" would be a start. There's no need for full nudity to successfully show off any of my tattoos. Still leaves me with the small matter of finding a photographer who doesn't suck. I'm pretty comfortable with my body now even though I haven't reached my goal weight. I'm sure there are tricks to hide my tummy poodge and saddlebags. Maybe once I've finished Alice, my puppet, and the cover up on my foot I'll contact the photographer for the mag itself. She charges $75/hr and does sessions in 2 hour chunks. I think that's reasonable and she'll work with you to get what you want. Since she photographs for the magazine, I'm sure she'd be able to help me with what they're looking for in a model. For a month, I might be a minor celebrity. I know I'm inked enough and I know I'm attractive enough. If anything, some of their previous girls have been more curvy than me. So I guess sometime in August, I'll contact her and set something up. Nothing like the dog days of summer for a photo shoot.

Here's to model behaviour. ;)

Insert Title Here

I didn't make it to Memorial this weekend. Yesterday after I left GFY (inside joke about Overlord's new name) I just wanted to go home. Plus I hadn't printed out any source material. Today I had to work from 8am-noon and by the time I got out it was snowing. Yes, snowing. In Georgia. In March. Plus, I was something equivalent to a zombie. I won't get to go next weekend either because I'm going to be out of town. So I'm not sure when I'll actually make it there in person. I guess I could go sometime during the weekend of the 14th. Part of the problem is it's a pain in the ass to get to. There's no real direct way to get from my house to their shop.

Lucius has reached the itchy stage. Definitely my least favorite part of the process. Britney & Christina are coming along nicely. The good thing about touch ups is they heal fast. It also helped that they didn't really need a lot of work to begin with.

I'm firming up my idea for my foot cover up. I think I want two cupcakes sitting next to each other and then other wrapped candy scattered around them. Toward the outside of my foot / the bottom of the piece I want it to say "La vita e dolce" which is Italian for "Life is sweet". Yes, I took enough Italian to translate it myself. This probably won't happen until late summer because I do need to slow down. Once Phil finishes my leg in early May, I'm taking at least 3 months off. By that point I could very well be working with Mark so then I wouldn't feel like I had to have an excuse to be there.

And now my laptop has pissed me off to the point that I'm going to finish this entry.