It Was A Bash...

The picture is the inspiration for my last focal piece on my left sleeve. I love her. She's perfect. However, she won't fit in the spot I have to work with. I talked to Tyson (www.tysonmcadoo.com) about it and he said while he didn't have time to modify her himself, he would help Russ any way he could if Russ ends up tattooing her. So I emailed Russ the idea and still haven't heard back. It's not like I won't be down there anytime soon, but if I want to get her done on the timeline I'm hoping for, then we're gonna need to set something up soon. I guess I'll know more in a few weeks.

My dermal spot still isn't totally healed so it can't be reset yet. It's looking like sometime Friday afternoon. At least I'll have the house to myself next weekend so I don't have to make up a reason why I'm going out. Not that it would really matter because it's not a new piercing, but still. They get uppity about odd things. If Jason has a glass retainer on hand, maybe I'll get my nose done for the last time. I also still want my tragus redone. The wishlist isn't getting any shorter. Le sigh.

All Eyes On Me

ARG.

Let me preface this by saying I don't necessary have issue with the content of the conversation, but the method he chose to approach the conversation.

I've made no effort to hide my new tattoos. I didn't really want to start wearing long sleeves just to prolong when they'd find out about them. My mom gave Misty & Dodgie the evil eye a few times, but didn't say anything. Then this morning in the car on the way to work, my dad starts busting my balls about it. For those who don't know, I'm not a morning person. I hate mornings. I think they were invented by Satan to torture us. So if you want to talk to me about something important, don't do it before about 10am. I'll resort to biting your head off which is pretty much exactly what happened. Not only that, there was nowhere for me to go. So he's cornered me and instead of, say, walking away to cool off and have a reasonable conversation later, I'm relying on emotional reactions. He does it to my mom, too, so I dunno what the logic is behind it. I was seriously considering if I could tuck and roll and survive.

When I tried to address the underlying issues of why he forced me to agree to this stupid sabbatical or whatever in the first place, he was all "that's not the point". Then what is?! I don't feel guilty about going back on something I was strongarmed and guilted into agreeing to. It doesn't make me immature or unreliable. He knows full well that I'm actually very mature for my age (I know that sounds like such a 14 year old thing to say, but I have independent verification :P) and reliable. It's not like I offered someone a kidney and then backed out of it. The simple fact of the matter is we'll never agree on this. His three main arguments for why I shouldn't have the "volume" of tattoos I do are as follows:

1. It will hold me back professionally
2. I shirk my bills to pay for tattoos
3. No man will ever want me

Shall we examine these a bit more closely? I think yes.

1. Obviously not if I was just given a promotion and will be gaining a whole new set of job skills. There are tons of successful people in the world with way more tattoos than I have. I've demonstrated that covering them up isn't a big deal. Plus, I don't expect to be in the industry I'm in forever, so that may not always be the case. Who knows what I could end up doing. Even if I stay on this path, there's nothing wrong with wearing a full suit every day (with my own special touches of course!).

2. I actually save and budget quite carefully to make sure that I don't miss a bill in order to pay for a tattoo. On many occasions, I've put off or limited the length of a session to make sure I had the money on hand to pay everybody.

3. This one is just ridiculous to me. If my recent social life has been any indication whatsoever, if I really wanted a boyfriend, I could have one. I could have several. Even if there's a guy I like who doesn't like me because of my tattoos, then he very obviously wasn't meant for me. I would expect my mom to bust out with something like that, but my dad? Oy! I've found if anything guys like girls with tattoos because they think it means we're wild in other aspects as well. There may be some truth to that...

At some point I'm just gonna come out and tell him my whole grand plan. He won't change my mind, I can do that just fine on my own, but maybe he'll be more inclined to keep his mouth shut if he knew it was going to happen. Or maybe I'm just deluding myself. Either way, I plan on revealing my plans to him in the next week or so.

*goes to look for riot shield and tear gas*

Sleeve Step 1

Yesterday I moseyed over to Ink & Dagger and decided to go ahead and start my sleeve. I knew I wanted the Misty Benson print, so I pulled it up to show Kurt. He liked the idea and took me around 6pm. We got about 2ish hours fo work done on her and all the really sucky stuff like shading.

The pictures aren't great, but that's what happens when you take a picture of your own arm. Also, the autofocus on my camera goes off when you turn the flash off, so that's why the first one is blurry. It gives a pretty good idea of placement and how the arm is going to look. She's gonna be reds and blacks with purple highlights. The kitty is pretty much done, though I dunno if he's totally finished or not. We should finish her up in about 3 weeks. I'm sure I'll be healed before then, but I want to make sure everything I want done can be done.

Kurt had a similar idea to mine as to filler and tying the whole thing together to make it look like a sleeve. He suggested some kind of vine work or filigree and I wanted iron work inspired filigree with roses or rosebuds interspersed. I'm also toying with the idea of having something not so nice spelled out in there, but we'll see. It depends on how ballsy I'm feeling, but part of me thinks it would be hilarious to have "bite me" or "fuck off" worked in somewhere so that you have to look really close to see it, otherwise it just looks pretty. Another part of me thinks it might be pushing the envelope too much.

I'm also wearing one of the Man Day shirts, if you can tell. I didn't get one on Man Day probably because I was working (and loving it like the goof I am). It certainly makes me feel manly, like I needed any help!

Various Updates

It's been about a week and the new tattoos are almost healed. There's still a little bit of scabbing which will probably be taken care of when I shower. I love text tattoos. They heal so fast.

I'm waiting to hear back from the piercer if he's at the shop today. I noticed my dermal is sticking out pretty far and I'm afraid it's gonna work itself out. I caught it on my seatbelt a few days ago and I guess it got a better yank than I thought. If he's not in, I'm gonna have to figure out sometime during the week to go.

In less happy news, Hell City is in two weeks and I'm not going. *sigh* It would've been great to see Muriel again and collect a new tattoo (or four). Maybe next year and maybe someone else can go with me. That'd be more fun than going by myself anyway. As I learned in New York, I'm only good at entertaining myself for about 2-3 hours.

And So It Is

So yesterday was the day. I got there 15 minutes late and Mark wasn't there yet (big shocker). It gave me time to eat since I hadn't eaten anything yet. I had several fonts picked out and I decided on the one that was still pretty, but would be legible for the future.

We got the placement on the first try and it doesn't look stupid when I have my arms down by my sides. It really wasn't that painful, but at this point, it takes a good bit to get my attention. Plus, we were done in all of about 35 minutes. Yet another reason to feel the love for text tattoos. I was wrapped up and out of the chair less than an hour after I got there. It was good to see Mark again. I forget how much I miss the cranky bugger's commentary. Hilarious.

I don't feel too bad about breaking my "promise". Most people haven't even noticed them yet. The ones who've asked are the ones who knew I was getting them in the first place. I feel like it was the right time to do it. I'm happy with them and they mean a lot to me and will very likely take on a deeper meaning in the next few months. If I'm gonna eventually have a full sleeve, everyone's going to have to get used to it.

The One Worth Sleeving

So much for being over the cold by Tuesday evening. It's Thursday night and I'm still hacking, have lost my voice, and spent most of today asleep. I've still got time until Saturday, but I'm not going to reschedule for a second time. I'm feeling a lot better than I was on Monday and Tuesday, but it would be nice to get rid of this cough. I have tattoos to get, dammit.

I'm gonna have to work out a design for my sleeve pretty soon. I have to figure out a way to work the text into the overall look I want for the sleeve. I have a general theme, but no real specific ideas. I like the look of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, but I don't want anything taken from it. Lucy was inspired by a Tim Burton character, so it follows. I know I want it more loose and open than fully colored in. I never thought that the fully colored in look would work well on me, or most women for that matter. I think it looks great on guys. Plus, with all my moles and skin imperfections that need to monitored, having everything colored wouldn't work anyway. I think a mixture of iron work inspired filigree and more roses would be a good jumping off point. I want Lucy to stay the focal point and I don't want make the text unreadable. A lot of it depends on who ends up doing the sleeve or if it becomes some kind of collaboration. I guess it's already a collaboration in the sense that the current 3 pieces were all done by different people, but still look somewhat cohesive. All if this is probably in the distant future anyway, but I'd rather get it worked out now so I can make sure it's the best looking sleeve it can possibly be.

Plans Foiled

I woke up this morning with a nasty cough which went away and was replaced by my sinuses filling up with fluid. The first rule of being tattooed is don't do it if you don't feel 100%. I'm gonna call Mark when they open, apologize profusely, and reschedule for next weekend. It probably works out for the best because I'm on my own next weekend and then can save the epic battle when my parents get home Tuesday or Wednesday.

edit: I'm set for 2pm next Saturday. I'm actually feeling better already thanks to 4 extra hours of sleep, Sudafed, and some tea. I'll probably be over this completely by Tuesday morning. I guess it was just a sign that today wasn't the day. Who am I to argue with the universe?

It doesn't make me any less pissed about it, though.

Highlights From Man Day

Man Day

I took pictures, but yet again can't find the cord for my camera, so they're forthcoming. I swear.

We got there around 3 and it was pretty busy. The list for tattoos was already three pages long, but I went ahead and added myself just in case they could fit me in before I needed to leave. I meant to get a shirt, but never got around to it. I also got my picture taken inside the cutout of the artwork for man day. Mama always said I'd make someone a good husband. ;) Jenn and Lauryn participated in the smoking contest which entailed seeing who could get it down to the butt while inhaling the fastest. Ah, hilarious. They were having trouble getting participants for the wing eating contest and I didn't hear how that panned out. Jenn also spun the wheel of destiny and got a Harley Davidson shot glass. Apparently she also stood on the Captain's back while he laid on a bed of nails.

The reason I missed some of this was because I ended up being in charge of the list. Not-Jason (I can never remember this guy's name and I keep trying to call him Jason and he's not, so thus the Not-Jason) needed a break so I took over. It was actually pretty fun. It was very similar to working as a hostess in a restaurant, minus the vibrating coasters. Russ got his hands on a bullhorn, which sped up the process of finding people so they could get their manly tattoo. I got to live my little dream of being a shop girl even if it was only for an hour or so.

Just Dive In

I've decided to go ahead and get the new tattoos. I'm set for Sunday at 2 with Mark. I love what he did on my back, so I'm sure this will look just as good if not better. It's also even a similar meaning to what's on my back. There's only so much you can do before life takes over.

It's also fun to talk with someone who is as heavily tattooed as I am. It's comforting to hear someone get asked the same stupid questions and compare notes. It can wear a person down to go a long time feeling like you're the only one who has to deal with the endless parade of idiots. It's the simple connections in life that can make shit generally easier to deal with. Plus, there's someone to have a good laugh with when you get asked "Is that real?" or "Did that hurt?" for the third time in one day.

I still need to set up time with Sylvia for my photoshoot. I got sidetracked after the 4th and totally forgot to email her back. I think it might be time to drop her a line.

Whatever Will Be, Shall Be

I'm getting really bad at updating this thing. I need to try to get better about it.

I've been in New York for the past 4 days and I've gotten quite a few compliments, comments, and strange looks over my tattoos. People certainly aren't shy about commenting, good or bad. A definite change from the Southern ways I'm used to.

That said, my tattoo itch is still pretty bad. I don't know if I've mentioned it here, but there's one I really want that has been kind of my mantra lately. Made famous by Doris Day, the original "Che sera sera/Whatever will be, shall be" comes from Dr.Faustus. I want "che sera sera" on the outside of my right forearm and "whatever will be, shall be" on the outside of my left. When I stack my arms on top of each other, it would read like two lines of a play or song. I saw the placement a while ago and loved it. I think it would look great with a really pretty font.

I've been dealing with a lot of change in my life lately, with still more to come. Some of it has been good and some of it has been bad, but in the end whatever will be, shall be. I do all I can to influence things, but eventually it's out of my hands. I think this is something I really need to get and soon. It's been 2 months since I was last tattooed and that's pretty much an eternity in my world. I know I unofficially agreed to 6 months, but in the end there's nothing anyone can do about it. It's not like my parents would kick me out on the street for getting some new work. My job situation will be determined either tomorrow or Monday, so then I'll know for sure about that. There are other changes in the works, but nothing I'm ready to share with the entire internet yet. Those who know me can probably guess, though.

I'll see if I can hold out until the end of August. I do have some big bills coming up and tattoos ain't cheap, after all. So indeed, che sera sera.