Twenty Five Tattos, Twenty Five Years

I have a picture, but my phone is being stupid and is taking forever to send the email. It's forthcoming, fear not.

I'm so happy with her. I stopped by the shop yesterday after work and Dustin could take me immediately. Woohoo! He really loved the idea which always makes it more fun. After all, you don't want an artist who isn't into what they're working on. I love the placement, I love the colors, I just love everything about her. He spent close to two hours on it. As I've said before, it's more combating boredom than dealing with the pain. Up near my elbow wasn't particularly comfortable, but not like some of what I've had to deal with. I'm going to be totally screwed when I run out of space on my arms. Then tattoos are going to hurt again. Kurt was in working on Laura's arm, so we also had them to chat with. She's already starting to scab up, but she's still swollen and emanating heat. That's the part I hate the most after the itching. It's also why I'm not looking forward to the aftermath of my eventual shin piece.

After he finished, we went over to Thinking Man and shot the shit for a while. There was this super drunk guy there who was a source of endless entertainment. He was wurring his slurds quite impressively. Drunk people are far more entertaining when you're sober.

I'm probably gonna swing by the shop Friday so he can try to get a better picture. We weren't having much luck immediately after. It has to be better than the picture I took on my phone from a weird angle. Taking pictures of your own arm is a lot harder than it looks, kiddies. Don't try this at home.

So for the moment I have 25 tattoos to go with my 25 years on this earth. Of course by the end of August, it'll be at least 27. Coincidentally, that's my lucky number. Good times.

A Melody, The Memory

I called Dustin this afternoon and we're getting together Monday for a consult. He was pretty excited when I told him where I wanted it. Prime real estate as he called it. I'm thinking about a few modifications to make her more me, mostly because it's a lot of black work. It'll be a fairly easy one sitting piece. I don't want it much bigger than my fist and I think the rose is actually bigger than that. Plus, my arms are so skinny, it would be hard to make her much bigger than that and not wrap around too much. All will be determined in less than 48 hours. So. Excited.

Now for the opinion time. I've wanted my shin tattooed for about a year now. I want one of Jeremy's "lady heads" as I'm sure I've mentioned. There are two drawbacks to this idea. One, my legs swell like crazy when I get tattooed. My thigh swelled so much last year that I had to take a day off work. So I'd have to arrange it so that I could be off my feet for at least three days. I'm thinking around Labor day. Since I have no time off, it would have to be near a day that we already have off. The next chance after that is Thanksgiving. If I got tattooed Friday night, I could lay around all weekend. Secondly, it would doom me to pants or tights for the rest of my working life. That's a long time. Like I'll probably be working until I'm close to 70. It's not a huge obstacle really. I wear pants most days because I find skirts ride up and my thigh tattoo shows. In the winter, I can mix it up with tights and skirts. I need to update my work wardrobe anyway. So, do the cons outweigh the pro of the fact I've been waiting over a year to do this? Really, the staying off my feet con is temporary. It's really whether or not I'm willing to commit to certain fashion restrictions for the next 45 years or so.

Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

I'm back my dear readers! How long has it been? Too long is the answer. First of all, picture time!



The lovely Leilani!

Now to the point of said post. I'll be getting two new tattoos in the next two and a half weeks or so. As it turns out, Dustin will be coming back to Ink & Dagger after a year and a half. I'm too excited for words. I wanted him to do another piece on me ever since he did the rose on the back of my arm. To refresh your memory:



I found the perfect piece for him to do for me. I knew I wanted a pin up girl or something similar, old school inspired, and on my left forearm. So there had to be the right mix of pretty and creepy. A quick Google search and I found:



Perfect, no? I thought so. He'll be in town next week, so I'm gonna call him on Sunday and pitch the idea. Russ was kind enough to give me his number so I could talk to him directly. Thanks, Russ. The second one is actually the reason I went to the shop in the first place and found out Dustin was coming back. I'm going to finish out the half sleeve on my left arm. I'm getting Kurt to do a phoenix to mirror Lucius. Her head will be down by my elbow and the feathers will fan out on the inside of my upper arm. I don't have a picture of that one because he's drawing her up for me. I'll be getting her on August 1, about two weeks after getting the yet to be named pin up girl.

I'm so excited. I'd pretty much given up on Dustin coming back, but I'm glad I still have the space on my left arm for him. Perhaps it was the universe working for me. So keep your eyes peeled for more pictures as they're going to be awesome.

New Ink! At Last!

So yesterday I gave Butch (my hummingbird) a girlfriend. Ink & Dagger was hosting an awesome artist from Hawaii and her portfolio was so me, it was insane. Birds, flowers, and pin up girls. As it turns out, her birthday is two days before mine. Yup, totally soul mates. Her portfolio is here.

I don't have pictures yet because I can't find batteries for my camera and she's still red and starting to scab. She's very similar to Butch's coloring, but we gave the flower a bit of a Hawaiian twist in honor of Sadie's current home. She was really cool to work with and easy to talk to. She said she was going to try to come back within a year, so maybe I'll need to leave some space on my right arm for her to do another piece. After all, it is the bird arm. :D

I think instead of the psychobilly pin up on my left forearm, I'm going to just do the ironwork inspired filigree and flowers. That arm is really mole-y and it would probably require way too much modifying to make the pin up look good. Decent sized flowers would fit and still keep the same gothic / creepy theme that I'm going for on that arm. The filigree would still look pretty and give the appearance of the arm being "full" while working around all my skin anomalies. It's a win-win. Now I just have to figure out who I want to do it.

Eep!

Sorry my lovely followers. I've been very neglectful of my poor blog(s). Without getting into too much gory detail, work, the end of the year, and various holidays took over and I barely had time to figure out which was I was facing much less blog about anything.

I haven't been tattooed since September, but that doesn't mean there's nothing going on in the tattoo world. I have it on good authority there's a little shindig hosted by one of my favorite ink houses in town coming up in the near future. Since I missed the epic throwdown that was Halloween, I intend on showing up with bells on. Or fringe and a pair of backseamed stockings, if you catch my drift.

Speak easy until next time dear readers. ;)

Me Want

Me want new piercings. Me want new piercings now. And the caveman speak is totally appropriate.

I'm debating getting my tongue and/or nipple(s) repierced. Thanksgiving is next week and if I got it done Wednesday night, then I'd have the next 4 days to recover. I have to work Friday morning, but I rarely answer the phone and it's only a half day. It also falls into the not so obvious category. If I can find my old jewelry, that would be even better because it's pink. Hardly anyone noticed the last time I had it, so I don't see why this time should be any different.

The same goes for the nipples. No one will ever know and I'm at a point where they could probably heal quite happily. I just want to be sure they'll be done right. In talking with Jason, the best I can figure is they were pierced too deep the first time which resulted in the ridiculous pain and poor healing. Also no offense to Jason as I know he's quite a capable piercer, but I think I want a lady to do it. The owner, at least I'm pretty sure she's the owner, of Kolo where I got my belly button done years ago is a woman, so if I could get in with her, that'd be good times.

It remains to be seen if I have the balls to go through with any of it. Though I did have the balls to darken up my hair which I thought I'd never do, so who knows? Stranger things have happened.

Misty Part 2 Experience

All the usual disclaimers apply to my photography skills. It is, indeed, quite difficult to take a picture of your own arm. Anywhoo...

I love her. She looks awesome. I love the blue in her hair. That might be my favorite thing about her, though the whole thing looks great. Another A+ for Kurt's work. At this point when I'm getting tattooed, it's more an issue of boredom than pain. Sure there were some unpleasant parts like tattooing over a bruise and on the ball of my shoulder, but otherwise it was just an exercise in trying to not get uber bored. It was another two hour sitting and there's some detail work he wants to do. So we're gonna let her heal up and then see what else can be done. Typical artist, nothing is perfect. :P

Apparently the Halloween party was huge and awesome. I wished I could've been there, but hey, marrying off your best friend *is* kind of important. The good news is they're hosting another party in January that sounds even more my style so that made up for it. I think there was even a point where I jumped up and down when Kurt was telling me about it. Plus, it's right after my birthday so I'll feel like it's a belated birthday party. Joy!

I may join the "lady head" club. Jeremy, one of the newer guys at Ink & Dagger, has tattooed one on Jason and Kurt. I definitely wanted one, so I emailed him and we're gonna work something out. It probably won't be until late December or early January just because of weddings, holidays, and finances. I think my style is a bit of a challenge, but I have faith in his skills. They're great looking pieces. I'm still debating where I want to put her. Kurt & Jason both have theirs on their calves, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm leaning toward putting her on my left thigh just inside Pretty Bird. I've got time to think about it. I'm probably not gonna seriously worry about it until about a week before I want it done.

So now next on the list is my creepy pin up girl on my left forearm by Danielle. I'm really looking forward to her. She seemed confident that she could finish her in one session, especially if we start early. So I guess we'll see. I'd like to get her done in one sitting if possible. I hate multi-session pieces. Of course, if it has to be that way, then it has to be that way. I also need to figure out who's going to do the filler for my sleeve. I'm leaning toward Kurt because we seem to be very much on the same wavelength about the style I'm looking for.

Also, Kurt will have an article coming out in Prick sometime in the next few months. I'll keep my eyes peeled and post when I see it. Perhaps Lucius will be in there?