TARDIS Take Three!

This is the third session on this TARDIS in the middle of my thigh.  There will undoubtedly be at least four to five more.  I only say that because I know there is a ton more work to be done, and I'm sure that I'll only do an hour to two hours at a time for monetary reasons.  I have so many other tattoo ideas that I'm eager to get started on, but the rational person inside of me tells me that I have to wait until my thigh is finished before I can begin another project, unless it's a small tattoo that will be finished in on session (more on that later).  There's still the Phoenix on the back of my thigh that needs to be addressed, as well.  The thigh will be under construction for quite some time, I'm sure, unless someone gifts me lots of tattoo time.  I doubt that will be happening!

April 8, 2016 - Authentic Ink (Omaha, NE )

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• Location: Inner right thigh
• Tattoo:  TARDIS

My last session on my TARDIS was a year and a half ago.  I wasn't even sure what we'd be working on when I went into this session.  Authentic Ink just so happened to have had another Living Social deal, so of course I had to jump on it.  The last session ended quite swollen (due large in part to my being hungover).  That I expected, but what I didn't expect was the minor infection that followed.  It wasn't horrible, mind you, but it was bad enough.  If you've never had an infection from a tattoo, you're lucky, and hope you never do.  It's incredibly painful, no matter how minor.  There were a few spots where the color was minimal, or non-existent.  Still, not bad.  When I told Spike it had been infected, he was surprised and said it was the best a tattoo had looked after an infection that he'd seen.  So I had that going for me.  

I'm sure you can guess that since I had the infection and some missing color, he went to work on going over the color in the TARDIS again.  I had hoped to get to see some of the "space" part of the tattoo get done, but it was necessary to go over the TARDIS again.  This was one of the more awkward tattoo sessions, and one of the more painful, I must say.  I did fine for the majority of the time until we were nearing the end.  Spike asked if I wanted to take a break, and of course I said I could finish.  He asked if I was sure.  I told him it did hurt a bit, and he said it was swollen as fuck, so he bet it did.  Eventually we decided that I should take a break.  He sprayed some numbing spray and placed some plastic wrap over it for about 10 minutes.

It was quite irritated, to say the least.  The rest of the session went quite smoothly.  I hardly felt a thing.  That numbing spray really helps if you're having issues during tattooing.  When he was finally finished and I stood up... Damn.  I'm not sure I can even impress upon you all how incredibly swollen my leg was.  It didn't even look like my leg.  Even Spike had to exclaim how freaking swollen my leg was.

I'd say that when all was said and done and it was healed it looked damn good, though.  I'm more than eager to get back into the shop and get to work on what goes around the TARDIS very soon though.  There has been a floating TARDIS in the middle of my thigh for far too long.  It's time it gets some Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey going on!!

Until then, Cheers.

TARDIS for Two

Wow, it has been a very long time since I have posted anything.  I have gotten a new tattoo, as well as some additional work on an existing tattoo, since my last post, but I procrastinated in posting anything.  This is mainly due to the fact that the new tattoo I got just wasn't exactly what I wanted it to be, and I didn't know what I would even say about it.  As I write this, I'm still not really sure.  However, hopefully I will soon be getting some more work done, so before I do that, I need to play catch up with what's been done thus far.  So, I might as well get to it.

June 10, 2015 - Ink Shop (Kearney, NE )

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• Location: Side of left ankle
• Tattoo:  Girl in TARDIS dress

I got stuck back in Kearney (my hometown) for about a year and a half (from August 2015 to December 2015).  The reason behind be ending up back there for a year and a half is quite the juicy story, but I'll only going to share the cliff's notes of that ordeal, as I'm in the process of writing a novel about that.  I left Omaha in June of 2015 to move to the UK to be with my boyfriend (who is in the Air Force).  Anyway, things didn't exactly go as planned and I got deported.  Yeah, you read that right.  Deported.  It was a horrific ordeal, but it is now in the past, as is the relationship.

On to the tattoo and how it came about - - I started working at a brewery in Kearney, Thunderhead Brewing.  I needed something to get my mind off of my whole deportation business and the waiting game as to whether the visa we had applied for would be approved.  So, I got a second job serving at a brewery.  When I started working there another girl, April, had just started herself.  April had just gone through a rough breakup after a very lengthy relationship.  It just so happened that we also shared a love of Doctor Who, thus a friendship was born.  You could say we both needed each other at that very point in our lives.  We spent more and more time together at, and outside, of work.  Now I started working at Thunderhead late January, so it was only four short months after I started working there that we decided to get matching tattoos.  I know, crazy right?!  I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that thought, and still think, that's crazy.  Maybe they're right, but sometimes you just know that people will be in your life forever.  We are kindred spirits, and are definitely still friends today.  I've never regretted getting a matching tattoo with her.  

**Side note:  I would NEVER get a matching tattoo with a boyfriend, not even a husband.  That shit goes wrong all of the time.

To us, we're family.  We're in it forever.  So we came up with the idea to get girls wearing a TARDIS dress with "Allons-y" coming from each of them.  The idea was born from this:

We both loved the idea, but I can't stand having cookie cutter tattoos, as you should know by now from everything I've written up to this point.  So, I thought long and hard and decided that we should combine our love of Doctor Who with this concept.  I had come up with, what I thought, was a very clever idea.

We took to a tattoo shop in Kearney, which I had told myself that I would NEVER do, but someone we trusted gave them a stellar recommendation.  On Tuesday's they had a special, two identical tattoos for the price of one.  Seemed like a win, win to us.  So we go in on a Tuesday to get our tattoos.  

I begin pitching my idea, but it was like talking to a brick wall.  These people had no idea what Doctor Who, let alone the TARDIS, is!!  I couldn't believe it.  The artist pulls up some photos since he doesn't have the foggiest idea what I'm talking about.  After some back and forth, he seemed to finally understand what I was describing to him, so we left him to draw up our tattoo.  We had an appointment for a few hours later, so we went to get some dinner and a drink.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know you shouldn't drink before a tattoo.  It was April's first tattoo though!! She was super nervous, so we each had just one beer, so nothing too crazy.

We arrived at the tattoo shop a little early for our tattoos.  He was finishing up on a couple of other matching tattoos (don't even ask about those).  When he was finished, it was our turn.  Of course they had to affix the stencil.  Everything looked OK with the stencils.  We stood back to back so that they would be directed at each other once finished.  April went first; she was a trooper.  I'll skip over my experience, as it wasn't anything too special.  It was a quick tattoo.  When we were all done, they tried basically charging us for both tattoos.  I fought them on that, as that wasn't what was advertised.  We still ended up paying too much, in my opinion.  

After the tattoos were finished, we went out for some drinks and dancing.  We got lots of compliments on our newly finished tattoos.  We both also spent the night dabbing blood from the fresh ink.  I'm sure our continued drinking had a little to do with that.  All in all, everything seemed great, and we had a fantastic day of it.

The healing was easy enough.  It wasn't until a few months later, and a deeper inspection, that I found that the tattoos weren't exactly up to par from what I'm used to.  About 10 months later, my regular tattoo artist gave me an ear full when I went in for some additional work on my TARDIS -- more on that later.

This is the finished product (night of whilst out drinking and dancing).

I am on the left, and April is on the right.

I hope to one day get them fixed up a little bit.  I'm not 100% sure what I will want to do exactly, but... it would be nice to make them a little nicer.

Moral of this story:  if a tattoo artist has a hard time understanding what you even want as a tattoo, you should probably choose a different artist.

A Little Stormy

Well, it's been a long time since I've gotten any work done. It's been a little difficult to get to Omaha - that and it's been a little difficult to gather the funds.  Authentic Ink finally had another Living Social deal, so of course, I jumped on that! 

I was feeling rather gun shy about getting more work done on my inner thigh with the TARDIS, and apparently so was my tattoo artist (probably not entirely for the same reason, though).  So, we decided to start work on the purple storm clouds that were going behind the Pheonix on the back of my thigh.  The good news is that the infection I got with my TARDIS wasn't that bad, so it will only need touched up a tiny bit.  The downside to having gotten an infection was that he didn't want to do too much work until he was sure I was back to healing properly, so I only ended up with about an hour of work on the storm clouds this time around.  This means that there will be another trip to Omaha in order in about a month!!

March 21, 2015 - Authentic Ink (Omaha, NE )

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• Location: Back of right thigh
• Tattoo:  Purple storm clouds

It felt really great to be getting inked again.  I can safely say this is definitely an addiction.  I find tattoos to be a pain/pleasure thing.  Sometimes I get those exciting, happy tingles.  Other times there's this odd painful sensation that hurts, but is still oddly enjoyable.  Then sometimes I just don't feel anything and could almost take a nap.  Actually, I'm pretty sure I have napped momentarily before!  

Anyway, I again had stupidly drank way too much the night before my tattoo session, so I bled a bit more than I should have.  I really should learn my lesson and not drink so much the night before.  I never did that when I lived in Omaha, but having to travel there from the incredibly boring town of Kearney right now, I find that I try way too hard to cram a lot into a very limited amount of time.  I just want to make the most out of my trip, and that often includes some copious amounts of drinking.  The good news about this time around is that the "hangover" I had pretty much passed by the time I was laying on the table to get my ink work done.  The hour went by so quickly; it hardly felt like an hour at all.  When he stopped, I really thought it was just for a quick break, but he said he wanted to ensure that I was healing properly before "beating me up too badly."  I guess I appreciate that because after my infection, I was mildly terrified for this time around.

I'm totally in love with how the purple makes the Phoenix POP!  I can't wait to see what it will look like with the rest of the clouds and the swirled coloring around the TARDIS.  My thigh tattoo is nearing completion, and I absolutely cannot wait to see it finished.  I will have to figure out exactly (when I say "exactly" I really mean "approximately," because I won't be able to figure it out exactly) how many hours were spent on everything done here - that and how much money I put into my thigh artwork :P

It's crazy to think that the first tattoo that I got done on my thigh (that turned into a full thigh piece) was December 22, 2012.  That means that I have been getting work on my thigh for over two years!

**Today being March 30th, it's been a little over a week since this tattoo session, and I can safely say that it has been healing beautifully!  So, I'm looking forward to another session in April**

Get a Little Color..!

I'm  a little delayed on this post because for a moment I kinda forgot about my little blog. Blasphemy! Anyway, since I'm still in the country and still in Nebraska (even though I'm stuck in the butt hole of Kearney), I can still make it to Omaha to continue getting work done on my thigh tattoo(s).  There is still a lot to be done, but it was nice to have gotten a couple of hours of work in.  My TARDIS is finally starting to look like a TARDIS. 

This has been quite a rough tattoo experience, however.  I've never had a tattoo hurt quite so much (I don't mean the actual tattooing process either).  I have had to wear pants on a constant basis since I got it done nearly a week ago.  It's is STILL sore and it's STILL painful when I walk.  There have always been issues walking around happily after getting a thigh tattoo done for a few days, but certainly nothing like this.  This time it actually got infected (cue sad face).  I have seen infected tattoos and always thought, "well, that will never be me because I know how to care for my tattoos."  Well, it is me, and I've still cared for my tattoos the same as always.  It isn't one of those horrendous infections that is going to affect the appearance of my tattoo, or even one that caused me to have to make a visit to the doctor, but it's still quite painful.  It's begun to get better, but there is still some redness along a couple of edges of the TARDIS and there is still some not so pretty scabbing on it.  I do think it has a lot to do with where the tattoo is located.  The inner portion of the thigh is lined by some very thin and delicate skin, so I don't think it's dealing with this tattoo business very well.  I remember the outlining not being so great, but it wasn't anything like this.  Then again, the outlining is just that, lines.  The coloring in process is always much more painful and is a much more time consuming healing process.

So, what am I thinking?  I'm thinking that the continuation of finishing this tattoo is going to be incredibly arduous, so it may require getting a little here and a little there.  I still have a lot that needs to be done on the top portion of my thigh and the back portion of my thigh, so I can just break up the work.  It will certainly be necessary when I'm going to have to be driving back to Kearney after each session (or at the very least, the day after the session).

November 2, 2014 - Authentic Ink (Omaha, NE )

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• Location:  Inner portion of right thigh
• Tattoo:  TARDIS flying through space (coloring in)

 I'm not going to go through the story since I have already done that, so we'll just proceed into the experience of getting this particular portion of this tattoo done.

For the majority of this tattoo I hardly felt a thing.  It was almost as if I weren't getting tattooed at all, which was quite strange since I remember the entirety outlining process being incredibly painful.  I was somewhat nursing a hangover and that always makes the tattooing process a trial.  I just laid back and let him do his thing.  I'm pretty sure I almost took a nap - ha!  Like normal we were listening to music, but then his little speaker system he has took a giant crap and ceased to function.  Apparently you cannot access Pandora on PlayStation (go figure - you can on Xbox), so Netflix was the next best thing.  By the time Roger the Rabbit  was playing I started to feel the pain...  It was a struggle to keep my cool.  I never really get to the point where I actually want to say "stop," but at that point I wanted to... I was getting a mild shiver and felt like I falling down a deep dark hole.  I figured it was just because of the mild hangover I had and that everything would be fine.  Besides, it's not as if I'm living in Omaha anymore and can just go in whenever anymore.  In fact, that was the first time I had been to Omaha (aside from flying in) since I made my great debut at the London Heathrow Airport, so I wanted to get as much done as possible.  I especially didn't want to leave with a partially colored TARDIS.  So, like usual, I made it through.  Man was that baby swollen!  Like WOAH, swollen.  I have literally never seen a tattoo that freaking swollen before.  It was unreal.  Again, I attribute that to the thinness of the skin in the inner thigh, as did he.

ENTER THE TARDIS

 I'm sure this isn't everyone's cup of tea, and I'm fairly certain some people think I'm absolutely nuts for getting a tattoo on the inside of my thigh, but I don't care.  People get tattoos in all kinds of places.  I have my reasons for doing it this way.  I never thought that I'd get a tattoo here, but when my thigh was beginning to become a total "thigh piece," it all came to me.  I wanted to blend the entire thing together, and what a better way to do that than to have the TARDIS spinning through space in the middle of it all (that's a rhetorical question)? 

I wished that this session would include swirling and making it look like it really is in space, or at least travelling somewhere, but getting such a large tattoo is a lengthy process and one must be paitient, or have a lot of money to do a lot at one time, haha.

I look forward to seeing how it all turns out.

As Luck Would Have It...

Well, as my luck (in this case not to much luck, but whatever) would have it, my moving to England has been very much delayed, and not in a good way.  Long story short, there were some visa issues and I got sent back here.  Yes, you read correctly; I was all the way to London and in the airport and I got sent back to the States.  It was a dreadful experience and I plan to write about it, but elsewhere, as this is a blog dedicated to my journey of self portrayal through the art of body ink.

Since my move to England is going to be delayed for quite a bit, this will give me a bit more time to get some more work done on my extensive thigh piece.  My only hurdle now is the fact that since I left my home in Omaha, and sold off most of my possessions in an effort to move to England, I am now stuck living back home with my father in Kearney temporarily.  I know, I know, it's really pathetic to be living with my father at 25, but when you're in transition to moving to another country and will only be in your current spot for less than a year, your options are quite limited.  Not to mention the short notice on needing somewhere to house your being... I digress.  That means that I am a 3 hour drive away from my tattoo artist.  So, tattoo appointments will take much more planning, and a bit more money.  I think the only upside is that I will have to have much more money available for each session to make the drive worth my while.  I'm already saving up for my next session.  I've only got $100.00 available right now, which won't get me much, but my goal is to be back under the needle in at least a couple of months.  I want to have enough for 3 or more hours of work this visit.

I'm hoping to at least get the TARDIS some color.  I'm not really sure how much time that will take.  I'd also really love to get the storm clouds around the Phoenix begun.  Hell, I just want to get this epic tattoo finished.  I already have some ideas that I'd like to add on to my Japanese Cherry Blossom Tree, as well as some other tattoos I want to get done.  However, I do believe that since I'm planning on moving out of the country, I'll wait on all those other tattoo ventures.  I think it's time to step away from having all my work done by one artist (as much as I love his work and desire to remain loyal to people).  It's simply time to get some varying views from different artists.  I've learned a lot from being inked by Spike, and I think I'm very much ready to seek out other artists to help me complete my journey of decorating the greatest canvas of all - the human body.

The Last ... For Quite Some Time...

The plans have changed.  The tables have turned.  The cosmos have smiled upon me.  However you want to look at it, my last session with the TARDIS will be the last session in a while.  Out of nowhere, I am able to move now.  That's the military for you, though.  I do feel rather disappointed that I will not be able to get anymore work done on my tattoo before I leave and that it will have to remain to unfinished.  If I could, I would get at least one more session in, but I can't.  It's going to be hard enough ensuring I have enough funds to make all of the moving expenses.  So, I sigh heavily and move forward.

Until next time...

Wibbly, Wobbly, Timey, Wimey...

I have finally gotten myself back into the shop for a little more work on this seemingly never ending thigh piece I've been working on since well... it's been close to a year an a half.  We're still no where near done yet.  This session was merely the outlining of the next addition to this piece to make it complete.  This thigh piece is truly a hodgepodge of a bunch of things I love.  Without further adieu - I'll merge into the description of the latest addition (but I'm sure many of you already know what it is by the title).

April 12, 2014 - Authentic Ink Tattoo (Omaha, NE)

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* Location: Middle of right thigh

* Tattoo: TARDIS flying through space (outlining)

Story: Well, I had a friend that absolutely loved Doctor Who.  The ironic thing was that I had tried to start watching Doctor Who, but couldn't get into right away.  When I finally really sat down to watch it, I fell in love with it - with the Doctor and his companions.  I know it's silly to bond with fictional characters, but I loved the personalities of the Doctor and the connections he formed with his companions.  Everything was always so witty and exciting.  Anyway - when I was trying to think of what to add to this ever expanding thigh piece, the TARDIS called out to me.  What better than to have the TARDIS flying through space colliding with everything else?!  Exactly!  It was perfect.  Well, to me anyway.  Unfortunately the TARDIS part doesn't have a huge meaning like everything else, but it still symbolizes something for me.  I have a friend, a very close friend, that I talk to about Doctor Who and we are both huge fans.  We have both laughed and we have both cried watching this show.  To me, Doctor Who is something to bond over with a good friend, and the TARDIS will take you there.  When I finally got my boyfriend to give it a try (hey, he's living in the freaking UK; he had to watch it), he loved it too.  Well, maybe "love" is a strong word to use for his affinity towards Doctor Who, but he still really likes it, and it's something we watch together.  He has a lot of catching up to do, though!

So, what you see here is merely the outlining of the TARDIS and some of the bursts that will turn into the TARDIS flying through space - You know, like in the intro of the show *nods* You know what I'm talking about.  It doesn't look like much now, but it will.  There was quite a bit of time put into the outline of the TARDIS and he used a special needle to accomplish the fine lines for this detail.  I think that by having it at an angle like that on the curve of my thigh gives it the illusion of flying though space even more, which I love.  I'm very excited to see how everything starts to blend together.

The next session will start the coloring of the TARDIS and making it look more like space.  I'm sure that one will have a lengthy healing process.  This one doesn't feel so bad, but I will tell you, getting inked that close to your lady parts is both painful and....well, not so painful ;)

Until next time!  Cheers! 

Best Friends and Sisters

This post is a bit delayed, as I got this tattoo almost a month ago, but frankly I was waiting for it to heal to get a better photo.  It's crazy how a tattoo so small has been one of the most irritating.  This coming from a woman who LOVES getting tattoos, but not this one.  The healing process for this tattoo was awful.  It also bled A LOT!  It also peeled and itched much more than any of my other tattoos.  It still feels a bit dry almost a month later.

Anyway....

March 1, 2014 - Authentic Ink Tattoo (Omaha, NE)
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* Location: Right ankle

* Tattoo: Red watercolor Lotus  with Infinity symbol

Story:  Well, as I've mentioned in some previous posts, I will be moving to the UK (this has been delayed to this November).  With this move, I will inevitably be leaving my friends and family behind here.  I have also mentioned my friend Kimber at least once throughout this blog, as well.  She was there for the Triforce tattoo, which was the beginning of my journey of tattoos with my tattoo artist, Spike.  Kimber and I have known each other since we were about 6 years old.  She is my sister, and I'm hers.  We wanted to get a tattoo that symbolized our relationship to each other, and that we'd always be by each other's side.  We had thought about getting a Batman and Robin tattoo (as that is something we happened to cling to - She's my Robin and I'm her Batman), but that never happened.  With my impending move, we wanted to get something done before that happened.  She is a Buddhist (I'm actually not religious at all) and I have been practicing yoga for quite a few years.  I've recently discovered the ideals of Buddhism and like most of the principals behind it.  I don't know that I can completely get behind all of it, or become a Buddhist, but I believe in their base ideals.  The red Lotus flower symbolizes love and passion, so for our friendship/sisterhood, we landed on the Lotus flower.  Mine is on my right ankle and hers is on her left, so that we are always by each other's side.

As you can see, we wanted it to have a watercolor look to it.  Though, honestly I've seen a lot of watercolor tattoos and most of them appear like a small child drew on you and it happened to be permanent (that was a mild exaggeration, because that would be a rather talented small child, but...still).  I just don't think those are meant to be tattoos, but that's just my opinion.  I think my artist feels the same way about that.  I only say this because he had some trouble not "drawing in the lines."  It required effort on his part to do it this way.  

This tattoo, however, just has a bit of casualness to it in lieu of being completely deliberate, or all over the place.  I liked this for our tattoo because our relationship has always been quite whimsical.  We're always getting in to trouble with each other, but at the same time keep each other on the straight and narrow when needed.  We know that no matter what the circumstances, the other will be there to lend support in anyway that it's needed.

Number 7 - "Night is Purer than Day..."

I must confess that though I knew who the author of the quote I chose to get permanently inked on my body was, I did not actually know its origin.  I don't know why I never looked.  Maybe it's because I believed this quote was a piece of beautiful mysterious poetry, so I looked no further.  The quote (or the poem I believed it was) simply grabbed me in a way I couldn't quite describe.  I loved the side by side of night and day and when I found the photo of the skeleton trees, it just came together for me.  Well, a few nights ago, my boyfriend and I were discussing tattoos, how you've come up with what you wanted and what it actually means to you (if anything, because many people don't have a deeper meaning behind their tattoo choices - hence the conversation) and he asked me about the quote I had.  So, I told him the author, Elie Weisel, and read him the full quote, as what I have tattooed is not the full quote (that would be quite wordy).  Anyway, he asked where it came from (not the author, but where it came from) and I realized that I had absolutely no idea.  Oddly enough it took me quite a few Google attempts to come up with the originating source of this quote, which as it turns out, is not poetry.  It is actually an excerpt from a book he wrote.  This book is part of a trilogy...  Finding out the true origination (and meaning for the author) gave my tattoo a whole new perspective.  Don't get me wrong, it still means the same thing to me, but.... I have a new appreciation.

Elie wrote three books: Night, Dawn and Day

"Night is one of the masterpieces of Holocaust literature. First published in 1958, it is the autobiographical account of an adolescent boy and his father in Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel writes of their battle for survival and of his battle with God for a way to understand the wanton cruelty he witnesses each day. In the short novel Dawn (1960), a young man who has survived World War II and settled in Palestine joins a Jewish underground movement and is commanded to execute a British officer who has been taken hostage. In Day(previously titled The Accident, 1961), Wiesel questions the limits of conscience: Can Holocaust survivors forge a new life despite their memories? Wiesel’s trilogy offers insights on mankind’s attraction to violence and on the temptation of self-destruction."

http://www.amazon.com/The-Night-Trilogy-Dawn-Day/dp/0809073641

This quote comes from a piece of literature based on his true experiences through the Holocaust.  Now, you don't know me, so you obviously won't know that I have had an innate interest in the Holocaust since I was a kid.  Finding out that this quote comes from the words of someone who endured such struggle simply brings a whole new meaning to my tattoo for me.  My tattoo for me symbolized my poetic successes and struggles, as well as some of my life's struggles.  I liked the idea of night and day over the skeleton trees, because people normally associate skeletons simply with darkness and death, but in my tattoo, I believe it symbolizes not the end, but the beginning of something new.  Things have not come to an end simply because the sun has set, the moon comes out and shines a new light.  Everything is reborn and nothing simply ends.  Things merely change.

I have not read the books yet, but fully intend to.  Everything appears to happen for a reason, yes?

Epiphany and Another Tattoo...

Hello again,

My tattoo has been ever so prevalent on my mind lately, especially after my last session.  My tattoo clearly doesn't look done right now and that bothers me quite a lot.  It wasn't so bad when it at least appeared to be finished (even though it wasn't), but now it's quite obvious that it isn't done.  So, I kept racking my brain about what to do about the middle section between the Phoenix and the Dragon.  Then it came to me!  I had an Ah-Ha moment - my tattoo epiphany!  I decided that since none of this tattoo REALLY goes together, because let's be honest, it doesn't; it just happens to blend well.

Anyway, I decided that a TARDIS was in order.  Yes, you heard me right - a TARDIS.  I absolutely love, love, love Doctor Who, but never could imagine having a large tattoo dedicated just to that.  I'm a huge fangirl of a lot of things, but I'm also not a fan of having tattoos of just something I'm a fan of (like Doctor Who, Star Wars, ext.).  Don't ask me why, I just don't.  So.... my idea is that the yellow and orange rays will continue to blend over, as well as the water, then the purplish storm looking clouds that are going to be around the Phoenix on the back will begin to swirl in with the water and rays on the front.  In the middle of all this magical blended beautifulness will be the TARDIS in all its glory.  I think it will be a wonderful juxtaposition.  I'm sure I won't be able to have this completely finished before leaving, but I'm hoping that with a complete end look in mind, he'll be able to do something that will make it look mostly done.  That was really the only hangup... not knowing what the end result was going to be.  Well, I finally have one and it's an exciting feeling to have.


NEW TATTOO....

My best friend (but in all reality she's more like my sister) Kimber and I have been wanting to get matching tattoos.  We were going to do a Batman and Robin thing, because 3 years ago we bought Batman and Robin shirts for Halloween and it kind of took off from there, but I found something better......and a bit more meaningful.  We're going to get Lotus flowers with stems curling into the infinity symbol.  The Lotus flowers will be red symbolizing love, compassion and the qualities of the heart.  We will each get the tattoo on our ankles; her's will be on her right ankle and mine will be on my left.  This way, we're always by each other's side.  We plan to get this done the first weekend in March.


I'm still uncertain as to when I'll be able to get back in to get more done on my thigh piece as of right now (financially).  All I know is that I need at least one more session before leaving... It needs to look somewhat done.

I have also been contemplating the continuation of my ink and whether I really want more.  I have at least one more large piece I have in mind that I KNOW I want, and one other one that it just a good idea, but I'm not in love with it.  I do think that since I'm leaving that I might decide to get the last one done with another artist, just to have gotten another one done by someone else.  I love Spike's work, and if I were staying in Omaha, he'd be the one to do anything I wanted done, but.....


To be continued...

The Thigh Piece Continues...

I'm so glad that I got the opportunity to get back into the shop an get some more work done on my thigh piece so quickly.  I have my grandfather to thank for sending me a very generous Christmas gift.  Because of that I was able to get 3 and a half more hours under the needle. 

December 21, 2013 - Authentic Ink Tattoo (Omaha, NE)

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* Location: Back/front of right thigh

* Tattoo: A continuation on the Dragon/Butterfly/Orchids/Phoenix Tattoo

 Here is a photo of the finished Phoenix.  This took up the bulk of the time.  He spent approximately 2 hours on finishing up this guy.  He first went through with a darker red, then with the yellow.  He looks fantastic - don't you think?!  I certainly do.  I'm very happy with how he turned out.  Next will be some clouds with purplish hues.  I have to say - this one was quite painful.  It's still causing me quite a bit of pain.  I foresee a long healing process on this one.  I'm sure it's due to the same area getting a twice over.

And here's a little collage of all the work that was done during this session.  I now notice that the filter I put on this one makes the Phoenix look darker than it really is (I guess that's Instagram for you - oh well).  It may not look like much was done on the front, but he started extending the orange and yellow rays over in the areas surrounding the dragon and the water in the area surrounding the orchids.  He also added some white in the black/grey orchids, which make them stand out quite well.  He also did a little touch-up on the butterflies, which had a few light spots on them.  He would have continued and kept moving out towards the butterflies, but I haven't quite figured out what I plan to do in the middle... So, he didn't want to blend over too far without knowing what we were going to do there.  

Here's to hoping I manage to have an epiphany on what to do with that open space!

Bring a Can of Food - Save $20!

Authentic Ink is running it's annual food drive deal.  If you bring in a non-parishable food item, you save $20 off of a tattoo.  The deal ends December 23rd, so get in there ASAP to save your $20.  I'm going to be heading in this Wednesday to schedule my next appointment for the Phoenix portion of my tattoo.

Who doesn't want to save $20 on their ink?!

And We're Back At It!

I have finally gotten back into my Dragon Tattoo.  As stated in my previous post, I hadn't been back since July.  That my friends had been due to driving back and forth between Oklahoma every month since the end of July up until October, but that's a whole other story that I won't bore you with right now, because after all, you're hear to read about my tattoos and not my love life, right?  Right.  Anyway, I knew I had to get on top of getting this tattoo going again since I'm leaving the country, again another story, so here we are.

We began this session by trying to figure out how to make the tattoo still appear done by the time I left, because we both knew that it wouldn't be "done" before I leave the country, but it's important for it to appear done to everyone else who sees it since it will be a good long while before I can return to actually finish it.  A part of the tattoo that he and I had discussed, but that I hadn't mentioned here, is the Phoenix.  We decided that it would really pull everything together if we did a Phoenix on the back side of my thigh (not to mention it would be really bad ass!!), so that's where we decided to start in this session.

November 20, 2013 - Authentic Ink Tattoo (Omaha, NE)

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* Location: Back side of right thigh

* Tattoo: A continuation on the Dragon/Butterfly Tattoo - Phoenix

* Story: I'm not going to go back into the story portion of this here too much since I covered that in my first post about this tattoo, but suffice to say that the Phoenix was not part of the original plan.  This may be the first tattoo (or part of a tattoo) that I didn't have some awesome story behind.  I've always found Phoenix's to be pretty damn awesome, and part of the point of this tattoo was mysticism and fantasy.  Neither dragons nor the phoenix are real creatures, but they appear throughout fantasy books, movies, and games, which I love.  When I think about the Phoenix, I think about Greek Mythology and Harry Potter.  Awesome, right?  Yeah, I thought so.

Here's a look at session one of the Phoenix.  It's certainly far from finished.  This was merely the first hour and a half (sorry the photo isn't the greatest - it's a little difficult to get a decent photo of the back of your own leg).

Stay Tuned!

Finally!!!

Wow, the last time I posted was all the way back in July and I had spoken about trying to get into the shop in a week or so.  Well, that clearly never happened.  I simply didn't have the time, nor the money, which was rather unfortunate.  But I am now faced with NEEDING to get back to it because I'm going to run out of time.  Ladies and Gentleman, I am leaving the country in a few months, so I've got to get going on this tattoo of mine!

I have no illusions that I'll be able to get this tattoo finished before I leave (there's still a good 10-14 hours left on this, if not more), but I'm going to make damn sure that I get as much done as feasibly possible before I leave.  I have no idea when I'll return to be able to finish it.  I found it humorous that when I went to make an appointment to resume inking my artist made sure to say, "Don't let some other limey bastard fix my shit!"  Haha, well hell no!  There's no way in the world any other artist will touch this tattoo.  Tattoos are art and you NEVER have another artist touch another artist's work. That is unless you made the mistake of letting some shitty artist ink your body and totally fuck shit up.  Then, by all means, find someone who is willing to fix it, but they probably won't be terribly happy about it.

So... this Wednesday I will be getting some more work done! Finally!!

Updates and photos to come soon!

Time and Cost

It seems like people like to ask how much money you’ve spent on your tattoos, and occasionally how many hours, but people generally like to quantify other’s tattoos on a dollar amount.  To be perfectly honest, I never really considered how much money I have spent on my tattoos, or how many hours I have been under the needle.  I just get them done and that’s that.  However, after being asked how much my tattoos have cost me, I decided to attempt to figure it out.  Since I’ve been being inked since I turned 18, I had to guess.  Like I said, I never really logged all of that information.  I did figure out that I have spent about $1850 on my ink thus far (this includes tattoos that have been covered up), but as I keep saying, all of it is part of your journey, so I’d of course have to include that amount in my total.  As for hours, I estimate around 21.5 hours have been spent on my tattoos to date.  It’s interesting when I start analyzing the hours portion of it, because people generally think that the more elaborate tattoos I have (Cherry Blossom Tree, Dragon, and Skeletons).  People are usually surprised by the amount of time that has gone into the tattoos I have; they’re always expecting them to be more.  I’m not really sure what to say about that; my tattoo artist doesn’t mess around and gets down to business?  To be fair, I have had 5 hours on just the dragon, which actually is quite a bit.  I’m actually estimating that this leg piece will be around 15 hours when it’s all said and done (I may have already mentioned that, but meh).  However, I do believe that the most detailed portion of the tattoo is finishing, which is the dragon.  

I’m getting rather anxious to continue with my dragon/orchid/butterfly tattoo.  I think I’m going to find a way to get going here in a week or so.  I’d like to see some more progress on it.  I’m really excited about what the back of the tattoo will have in store.

Until next time,

Prost! 

A Little Break

Alright, since we’re all caught up to where I’m at currently at within my tattooing journey, I figure I’ll start sharing some stories here and there, because it will be a month or so before I schedule another session for my thigh piece (this one is being done slowly so that I can afford it).

Speaking of being able to afford tattoos (I know I’m rambling a bit; you’ll have to forgive me, because I just have the tendency to do that), Spike and I have had quite a few conversations on how many people go about getting tattoos.  So many people will go in and say they want this awesome tattoo, but will only spend “x” amount of dollars on it.  Many times the amount of money they say they’re willing to spend won’t get them anywhere near what it is they’re wanting, but they go ahead get the subpar tattoo.  Not that the work isn’t good, but the tattoo ends up being half-assed because they won’t take it in sessions, or something.  I could never afford most of the tattoos I’ve gotten if I didn’t split them up into sessions.  This tattoo on my thigh has only been done in hour, or hour and a half, sessions because that’s what I can afford.  I think it’s important to think of a tattoo as an investment and not to put a dollar amount on something you’re wanting, especially if there’s going to be any kind of detail.  Chances are it’s going to cost more than you anticipate, and may take longer than you initially thought, but ask yourself this question - Do I want a good tattoo that has been done well, with detail and effort, or do I just want what $100 will get me? Asking yourself that question could save you the trouble of hating something down the road.

Anyway, I’m finished with my rant.

Back to “stories” - I think I’ll start with this last weekend at Crescent Moon’s 7th Annual Sunfest!!! First of all, craft beer - Can I get an amen? Aaaaaahhhhhhhh yes, I would like to start by saying that craft beer drinkers are generally the nicest and coolest people you can ever meet.  They’re so friendly and open; it’s great.  My friend Tyler and I went to Sunfest together and we got to meet some kick ass people, while sampling some kick ass beer created by some rather talented people.  He used to work for Thunderhead, so that was his conversation starter (wearing a Thunderhead shirt, just as he should have) and mine are my tattoos.  I had a few random strangers come up and ask to see my thigh and my back.  I love the great conversations that ensue over passions like tattoos and craft beer.  I’ve never been one to have conversations with strangers, and generally try to avoid such interactions, but ever since I have gotten these large and very noticeable tattoos, I’m a lot more open to random conversations.  I think it’s because starting off by discussing one another’s tattoo pieces, where you got them done, how much time went into them and whatnot, is very non-threatening and thoroughly enjoyable conversation starter!  Of course, there’s the other side of the coin where someone deliberately comes up to insult you because of your tattoos - fortunately, I have not had to encounter this.  I don’t know if it’s because people haven’t had the gumption to come up to me and say such things, or if it’s because I haven’t actually encountered anyone who has thought my tattoos were trashy, or horrible, or whatever people sometimes think.  It’s impossible to know what people are thinking when they don’t speak up; I did start to notice that ever since I have gotten the tattoos on my thigh, that whenever I’m wearing something that shows them off, I do get stared at quite a bit.  Maybe that’s just curiosity - or maybe that’s people judging me and not speaking up.  Honestly, I could care less.  I think there’s an e-card that says it perfectly, and it’s along the lines of - I don’t care what you think of my tattoos, your opinion never crossed my mind when I was getting them. 

Until next time,

Cheers

It Has Been a Long Time Coming, a Childhood Dream - Number 8

*Here we come to present day - and what is in progress*

It’s going to sound a little crazy, well maybe not, but I get a lot of somewhat strange looks whenever I tell people this, this tattoo is one that I’ve wanted since I was about 12.  Well, part of it I’ve wanted since I was 12, and the other part has been ever since I was 13 or 14.  I think this will be one of my more impressive, and extensive tattoos thus far.  I just finished session 4 with 6 hours, and we’re nowhere near done with this one.  You may be wondering why if I have wanted this tattoo since I was 12 that I didn’t get it as a first tattoo, and instead ended up with the awful one I did... Well, I knew way back then that this wouldn’t be a simple tattoo and I couldn’t actually envision it.  That’s something kind of important about me - If I can’t visualize it, I won’t do it.  That goes with anything.  It can be a good thing and a bad thing.  That type of thought process can, at times, stop me from doing really stupid things, but it can also keep me from amazing things.  Some of the best things in life are done on an impulsive whim.  Some things.

Anyway, I’m going to cut right to the chase because it’s near impossible to really talk about this tattoo without delving into the story.

Location: Remainder of upper thigh (all above the knee)

Tattoo: Dragon - Orchids - Butterflies

Story: I will start with the dragon (this is the part I’ve wanted since I was 12) - As a kid I would retreat into books and I always loved scifi, fantasy, horror, and mysteries the most.  I cannot tell you when my love affair with dragons began, but I feel as if I’ve always loved them.  I remember my 12th birthday party was a surprise.  I had a dragon cake and my mom had gotten me this dragon necklace with earrings that came in a little box, another dragon necklace that was a vile that had glitter in it (or pixie dust - it was more fun to think of it that way) and the most awesome dragon card that I had ever seen!  Anyway, enough reminiscing, that is the simple version of my love for dragons, and it hasn’t wavered.  As for the orchids and the butterflies - this comes from a song. “The Theft” by Atreyu “A thousand black flowers explode into butterflies.” I cannot explain to you why this touched me so much, nor why I felt so compelled to get it as a tattoo.  All I remember is the first time I ever heard this song when I was a freshman in high school (14 or 15), and those lyrics, I knew I had to get it as a tattoo.  

Now for the fun voila moment - As I had said, I hadn’t gotten this dragon tattoo, or the flowers/butterflies tattoo yet because I could not visualize it.  I had thought that I’d get the dragon huge down the side of my thigh the way my mom had her roses done, but I just wasn’t in love with the idea.  Well, my friend Kimber and I were, and still are, planning to get a sister/best friend Batman and Robin tattoo, so we went into the shop to get pricing on it.  While we were sitting there and contemplating our Batman and Robin tattoo, I suddenly knew exactly how and where I wanted these tattoos - I needed to combine them into one!  So, I made an appointment. 

I figure in this post, I will catch you up to the most recent session.  I could have broken each one down into its own post, but that seemed silly.

Session 1 - 

Here we just got the dragon started (sorry for the less than visible photo of the dragon, but I got a new phone and for whatever reason, the other photo didn't get transferred - see Instagram for more)

Session 2 - 

Now the dragon has started to take on some definition, starting to look pretty awesome

Session 3 - 

Now we’ve gotten to work on the flowers and butterflies, still a lot of work ahead

Middle of Session 4 - 

End of Session 4 - 

This is the dragon all finished 5 hours later! Spike said no one has ever let him spend 5 hours on a dragon before (or anything like that, I think), but I knew I wanted this dragon to have a lot of detail and really stand out.  The orchids and the butterflies are just the accent pieces.  We also discussed the full extent of where this tattoo is going.  It has actually taken on more than I had ever anticipated when I started this process. I think we’re looking at a good 10-12 hours before it’s all done.  Possibly more; it just depends on the detail put into the rest of it.

And just a little Collage of the process thus far :) 

It Came Out of Nowhere - Number 7

So, it had been a little while since my Cherry Blossom Tree back tattoo and I was itching to get another tattoo (this seems to happen more and more for me), so my brain had been busy at work trying to come up with something to get.  Since the point of this blog was to illustrate my journey and the meaning behind the tattoos I’ve chosen to get (or at least the lessons I’ve learned as to why that’s important and why I incorporate that philosophy now), you can guess that I couldn’t just get any ol’ tattoo.  Certainly not.  It’s easy to see something and think, now that’s cool, that could make a good tattoo, but it’s another to conjure up something that will look good and have true meaning (in my opinion anyway - you may have a different experience).  I’ll cut to the chase on how I came to devise this next tattoo and save the detail for below - I like to peruse Google+ and I had come across a quote by a poet, which I loved, so I saved it for future reference (I also write poetry and I am sometimes inspired by the words of others. Many of my poems started with a line, or a few words that had initially be written by someone else).  Then a few weeks later, or so, I came across a photo that, to put it simply, just spoke to me.  Then out of nowhere I devised a way to combine the two into a meaningful tattoo.

December 22, 2012/January 18, 2013 - Authentic Ink (Omaha, NE)

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Location: Outer portion of my right thigh

Tattoo: Two skeletons branching off into trees with night on one side and day on the other with a verse from a poem at the bottom.

Story: I’ll start by sharing the whole quote and citing its source - “Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming. At night everything is more intense, more true. The echo of words that have been spoken during the day takes on a new and deeper meaning. The tragedy of man is that he doesn’t know how to distinguish between day and night. He says things at night that should only be said by day.” - Elie Wiesel

What I find beautiful about poetry is that, yes the author usually had some intended meaning behind his/her writings, but they are always so open for interpretation and can speak to anyone in whatever way they feel. Frankly, when I first came across this poem, it didn’t mean anything to me necessarily, but after finding the photo to pair it with, it took on a deep meaning for me. I had found this photo of two skeletons (which are obviously dead) that had arms with leaves growing from them, and their feet were roots.  From this poem I devised a night and day scenario - one side would be graced by moonlight and the other by a sunrise.  The roots would be in water while the quote went over it - I chose to only use a portion - “Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming.” Many things may look more beautiful during the day, but at night, at night is when everything truly comes alive. At night is when everyone’s true self comes out, but in order to be blessed with the night, we must first be graced by the sunlight.

Session 1 -

Session 2 - 

I have also been struggling a lot when it comes to love.  What I derived from this photo of these skeletons was death and despair, but regardless of the times we encounter death, pain, loss, despair and loss of hope, there is always a glimmer of life and possibilities.  In order to truly experience love, we must also endure pain and despair.  Without one, we cannot have the other, just as without day, we cannot have night.

Death does not necessarily mean the end, but rather the beginning of something else.  Making room for something new to grow.

And so it Grows - Number 6

As I mentioned in my first post, I desperately wanted to cover up my lower back tattoo, most colorfully known as a “tramp stamp,” and I had been racking my brain to come up with a solution.  Well, I finally had, and since I had met Spike and loved the work he had done for my Crest of Hyrule tattoo; I knew just where to go.  I first scoured the internet for photos to come up with some kind of idea as to what I wanted. I didn’t want to walk in there half cocked and not know what I wanted *hehe, half cocked* (sorry, that was terrible and juvenile - moving on).  I saved a few photos on my phone so that I would have a general guideline, if you will, to show him.  I didn’t want some carbon copy of someone else’s tattoo, or of some photo I found, but needed something.  You should recall the Japanese Cherry Blossom on my shoulder?  Well, that tattoo was about to expand into an entire back piece! AND cover up my blunder of a first tattoo. It was perfect because I absolutely loved my Japanese Cherry Blossom tattoo and I received compliments on it regularly.  Also, one of the reasons I love the Japanese Cherry Blossom so much is because it is in fact a tree. 

Let’s fast forward to getting the tattoo, shall we?

March 31, 2012 / April 13, 2012 -  Authentic Ink Tattoo & Piercing (Omaha, NE) by Spike

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Location: Back

Tattoo: Japanese Cherry Blossom Tree (expanding from original shoulder tattoo and covering up lower back tattoo)

Story: Well, I’m not sure I have much to say here since it has been prefaced with the original Cherry Blossom tattoo and that I kind of eluded to the story above. So, this section has been rendered mildly useless. Oh well. 

There were 3 sessions in total with this tattoo. The third session was merely the blending of the original Cherry Blossom tattoo on my shoulder to match the new work he had done to the tree on my back.

Session 1 - 

As you can see the lower back tattoo is still visible, and he’s mainly done work on the tree and outlining (he drew this tattoo directly on my body without a stencil, as well)

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Session 2 - 

 This is immediately following the last session that completed the back

Ah, almost finished! I think this tattoo (including the time spent blending the shoulder portion) took around 6 hours.  I can safely say that this was one of the more enjoyable tattoos I’ve gotten.  Please understand that I emphasized enjoyable for a reason - I genuinely liked the feeling.  The cover up on the lower back was probably the best part.  I got those little tingles going down my bottom and my legs (maybe you know what I’m talking about).  Suffice to say, this was a solid tattoo choice.

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Session 3 - 

I decided the best way to showcase this part of the Cherry Blossom Tree was to put together a Pic-Stitch of the original piece (pictured earlier in my blog) and what it looks like now.  I didn’t actually take a picture right after since it was just the blending, but it’s an interesting contrast.  This also showcases how good Spike is at what he does.

*Since I am going backwards and working my way forward, I have stories that I can share regarding people’s reactions to my tattoos and conversations I’ve had about them, but so that I can keep the blog going after I’ve reached present time (since there can be a couple months, or even more, between tattoo sessions, or new tattoos), I’ll save those stories for later.