Art That Hurts

Good Afternoon!

I was just thinking about, well, a lot of things... but tattoos was one of those things! Then I realized that I have never shared my love of tattoos on my blog. So I think it is about time! Let me tell you, I LOVE tattoos. I think they are so amazing. I would have a lot more if I wasn't afraid of how it might cause certain people to pass judgement on me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not not getting tattoos because of how people see them. I'm just not getting tattoos in certain places (places that aren't so easy to hide) because of how people see them.

Anyways, I have four tattoos that I haven't shown off for quite a while. They have been sort of forgotten for the last couple years and I didn't spend hundreds of dollars so forget about them! So here they are...

My very first tattoo was a peace sign on my ribs. I got it three days after my 18th birthday when I was in Calgary for a Tool concert. One thing I probably should have known before getting this tattoo is that it hurts pretty bad to be tattooed on your ribs. Somebody else got the same tattoo at the same time as me, but it was my idea that I was going to get, and he just jumped on board. This one is only about three inches in diameter, but still took about 90 minutes.

{I couldn't find a picture from the time I got it, so here's my big pregnant self (about two weeks before my son's birthday) with the tattoo.}

{I couldn't find a picture from the time I got it, so here's my big pregnant self (about two weeks before my son's birthday) with the tattoo.}

This was my third tattoo. (I'm leaving the second one until last because it is unfinished) It is a dragonfly that I painted with sumi-e ink then had tattooed on my back. As bizarre as it may sound, I got this tattoo with an ex-boyfriend (same as the peace sign) after we had broken up. It was like a very strange parting gift, I suppose. While three of my four tattoos are ones I share with others, I think it is harmless because there really is no way of anyone knowing (it's not like I have names tattooed on me!) if the tattoos aren't seen together. This one is supposed to be black like the peace sign, but it didn't heal as beautifully. It's also about 3 inches long.

This was my fourth tattoo. Myself and two girlfriends got these tattoos together. One of the friends (Stacey, middle tattoo) I have known for 9 years now, the other (Jes, left tattoo) for about 6, but we were best friends during some pretty important times and we wanted to have something permanent to show for it. My tattoo is the orange and black one (on the right side). This tattoo took under 10 minutes to do (they're only about an inch long)! We came up with the idea because of a photo of the three of us (see below). Jes drew up the design. We also wanted to make sure there were no names or anything because it might be strange to have "Jes & Stacey" tattooed on my arm when I'm forty and haven't seen them for 15 years. Of course we hope to know each other, but sometimes things change.

Us three playing with sparklers at the age of 16/17.

Finally, the second tattoo! This one is huge and unfinished. It was started in October 2006, and hasn't had any new work done since April 2008. The simplest reason is because I got pregnant right after that, and since then I haven't had hundreds of dollars to just throw at tattoos! There are other factors though, that we just won't get into. Anyways, I came up with the idea for this tattoo and I knew a tattoo artist who had some really original stuff so I had him draw it up. I originally thought of having tentacle sort of things coming from beneath the lotus, but he suggested the snakes and they turned out great. They also contribute additional meaning to the tattoo. It has a lot of meaning to me, to say the least. I originally wanted to tattoo to be about 10 inches high, if that. However, the day I went to get the outline done, he put the stencil on my back and it was huge (about 18 inches from top to bottom). So huge it is! I think this tattoo has had at least 10 hours invested in it already.
(Pardon the dirty tape marks on my back!)

You can see how unfinished it is when you compare it to the full colour drawing of the design!

I hope that wasn't too long! :)