Tattoo Number 3 - Another Mild Mistake

It turned out I hadn't completely learned my lesson from my 18 year old naive, impulsive, impatient mistake that was my lower back tattoo - more commonly known as a "Tramp Stamp." I again found myself being impatient and getting a tattoo from someone against my better judgement.  I did this simply because I wanted it, and I wanted it right then and right there. My friend Morgan and I were visiting Kansas; she had decided that she wanted to get her nose pierced, so we went into a shop that her friend knew.  I had been wanting these stars trailing up to a dragonfly, so I figured I'd get it since we were going and it would likely be a fairly cheap tattoo (I was thinking $50 to $75 tops, as it was going to be very small, not incredibly detailed, and not take very long - likely 45 minutes).  Well, we go into the shop and I talk with an artist that had time to tattoo me at that time. I explain what I wanted and he quotes me $150! I about lost my mind; my response was that my tattoo on my upper back (the Mom tattoo from my previous post) only cost me $300 (It was $350 with tip) and took 3 hours.  I then continued with the fact that this tattoo was very small and should take under an hour, 45 minutes tops.  The most I'd pay would be $100, but even that seemed overpriced to me.  He takes a look at it and tells me it's a very good tattoo, and asks where I got it done, so I told him.  His bullshit response was, "All tattoo shops charge differently."  I looked him square in the face and said, "I won't pay over $100 for this tattoo."  He kind of stares at me for a few moments, then reluctantly says "okay."  I should have known that having this argument with a tattoo artist about a tattoo was a HUGE RED FLAG and to just wait, or find another tattoo shop in the area, but no, I got the tattoo anyway.


January 2, 2010 - Artist at Large (Wichita, KS)
https://www.facebook.com/artistatlargetattoo

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• Location: Back of Neck

• Tattoo: Large star with a trailing of stars up to a dragonfly

• Story: First of all, I wanted stars because my middle name is "Starr," so I felt justified in getting stars unlike everyone else who got them, but that is but is beside the point.  For me this tattoo symbolized freedom and always following your dreams no matter where you are in life.  The large star on the bottom (which was supposed to look shaded - he did it horribly. I do plan to have this one fixed at some point) is supposed to symbolize "home" or "family"- basically your starting point and somewhere you may always return to, but it isn't where you'll permanently stay. I was at that point in my life where I was trying to convince myself to move away from home and live on my own, but I had a lot of anxiety about leaving my dad after my mom dying. It wasn't that I couldn't live on my own, or that I depended on my dad, but that I had always wanted to live with him since I was a child. After finally being able to be with him, only to lose my mother shortly after - I had some anxiety about it, to say the least.

I think that at some point I will have someone fill in the base star (since the shading won't be able to be done as I had originally intended), add some kind of design around the trail of stars, fix those stars up a bit, and possible do a small touch up on the dragonfly to make it a little more impressive than it is at the moment. I may even add some wording if something strikes me as meaningful for it. I write a lot of poetry, so this may be one of the opportunities I take to write something up to tattoo on myself.  It's something I've always wanted to do, but had never quite envisioned something that would be appropriate.  This tattoo has a symbol that no one would really ever guess by looking at it, but I think that's something I like about this tattoo.  It's complete and utter simplicity - but that doesn't mean I don't want it to be done better.