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.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, March 27, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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*
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*
Saturday, March 21, 2009
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!
Friday, March 20, 2009
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?
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?
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