Number 7

Last night, I went with Scot to get his 7th tattoo. He has decided that he eventually wants a full sleeve on his right arm, which will be designed and tatted up within the next few years. This most recent tattoo would be the last one on his upper arm, before he focuses on his forearm and tying the whole thing together.

Anyway, I digress. Scot has wanted to get his mom's family's coat of arms tattooed on his inner bicep for a while now, since, according to him, his dad's family's "looks like it has 3 Jesus fish on it". (It doesn't.)

So he gave our tattoo guy Chris, who was visiting from California, the following image from a banner that his aunt had; it represents the German island that part of the family comes from.

I've mentioned this before, but Chris has done several of both mine and Scot's tattoos. He's an incredible artist, and it's well worth the wait for him to visit the east coast or even go out to the west coast to get work done from him.

That being said, tattooing commenced around 7pm.

Such a trooper.

Outline.. "Yes the flex was necessary."

Finished!

It took about 4 hours in all, making Scot a super trooper - he was really hurting by the end of it. Oh, and the yellow part behind the bird? Supposed to be all yellow.. not that nice shade of orange you see, caused by some blood leakage. That's gross, sorry.

The lucky jerk decided to take off of work today to let it heal up a bit, while yours truly had to get up at 6:15am, after not getting home until after midnight. I? Am not thrilled. I need my beauty rest, people.

Although.. I was pretty stoked last night, because the bathroom mirror at the tattoo shop had mustache sticker on it. So of course I had to take a picture.

Peace out, cub scouts

Or, as my niece would say "peace out GIRL scout" because she's a GIRL, not a boy. Touché.

So I hate to say it, but I'm peacing out of the blogger-world for the weekend, because, as I mentioned (numerous times)... VEGAS! I'm going to have a lot of catching up to do next Tuesday when I get back, and I'm totally ok with that :)

Before I go, I did want to throw out there that there has been talk of tattoos while in Vegas. I've written about all the ones I already have and I know I want to get one (or more) in the future, but I'm struggling with the decision to get another one in the next few days. Now I know you all will say "If you're not sure, don't!".. and you would be 100% right, but let me explain!

There is an amazing artist by the name of Kurt Halsey (check his stuff out.. please!). I LOVE his work, his style, everything he creates. One of his paintings that I've always loved is this one:

Click it so you can read the post-it!

I mean, everything about this is perfect. It's sweet and sentimental, beautifully painted, and then funny all at the same time. Lurve it.

Back in the day, before I had any tattoos, this was what I wanted; something by Kurt Halsey, preferably the birds and/or the text written above them. My current thinking is to do one or both on the top of my right foot, a place where I have wanted to get a tattoo but have waited to find exactly what to put there, and I think this might be it.

Don't think I'm crazy for wanting do to this so "impulsively".. let's face it, if I were impulsive, I'd be getting married this weekend. Which is not happening. Mostly because my mom won't be there.


Either way, I have no friggin idea what is going on this weekend and I'm psyched and I may or may not come home with a new piece of ink. Scot wants to reenact The Hangover, complete with a tiger and all. Of course he kids (I think? heh), but I'm sure there will be lots of good times to be had.

And of course we'll be going with..

...only the best intentions :)))

On that note.. later alligators! Have a fantastic weekend!!

ps. I got a mani/pedi yesterday in preparation for the trip.. and decided on a whim (oh geez, maybe I am impulsive?!) to get my eyebrows waxed. I have never done this before (I don't know why) and it hurt. Like a bitch. And my forehead is still red.


pps. Guess who's cold sores are almost completely gone?!?!? This girl's! Valtrex saved my life. (HAH there's so many things wrong with that.. sorry!)


All photos from www.kurthalsey.com

Friday = tattoo day?

Since I wrote my last tattoo post on a Friday, it seems only right to post the next one today.

A few of you wonderful people have been asking to see my other tattoos, so here they are! I feel like there's such high expectations.. hope you're not disappointed!

So you know of the shamrock on my foot and cherry blossoms on my side (post here).

I also have some stars on my neck:

This picture is complete bc of my sexy rat tail end of a french braid.

These are my favorite, possibly more than the cherry blossoms. Can't explain why, except that I have a love for anything star related. It started out as just the one solid star closest to my ear (which I was totally ripped off on.. $100 bucks for a stupid little star?!), which I later got refilled and expanded upon (much cheaper this time).

My next one is what I like to call a quasi-infinity symbol. But first, me before the tattoo:

Bare wrist! Eeeep!

And after!

I'm sooo MySpace circa 2003.

Lolz, those were for your amusement. But seriously, while it's pretty basic, a lot of thought actually went into this one. Scot and I both wanted to get something that represented each other and us, but tactfully so (as in, no names splayed across our bodies). Both of our names start with S, so I started creating designs on Illustrator that incorporated two S's. It just so happens that we both ended up liking the most basic of all the designs, and I'm really in love with it (and him!). I got mine done first, and he got his done a few months later. I really love how it mimics an infinity symbol, too, because it means that much more to me. I'm counting on us being in each other's lives forever, obvs.

His is a liiiiitle bigger ;)

Last but not least is the tattoo that I get the most comments on:

BFF/MOH J thought it said "beatto". Fail.

It says "Breathe" and is on my right forearm. There's also a bit of a story behind this one: all through my dancing life, my teachers always told me to breathe, because apparently I would just keep going and turn a bit red and dance more rigidly from (unknowingly) holding my breath. Once I was in massage school, my instructors were telling me the exact same thing, both when watching me and feeling my work. Add that to the fact that I have a tendency to get over-anxious about things, "Breathe" seemed like a really, really good mantra to have staring me in the face. Scot told me I should have gotten "Inhale" on the left arm and "Exhale" on the right arm so I don't forget. I promptly told him to shut it.

I have plans to get at least one more which will be a silhouette of a dancer, possibly on my back. I think I'm good for a while though!

So there you have it. I love seeing other people's tattoos.. I hope you all post some of yours in the future!

((all personal photos))

Ink me

When I was younger I hated the idea of tattoos. I remember how my high school sweetheart talked about getting some, maybe even a full sleeve one day, and I was just livid and disgusted. "Why would you cover yourself in ink? You're limiting your job possibilities. I think it's tacky." Granted, at that time, I was still on track to go to college for dance and dance professionally, so tattoos really weren't the best idea for someone in my field. And I guess I just transferred my personal sentiments onto those around me (sorry!).

But my, how my opinion has changed.

My senior year of college, I got my first tattoo: a small shamrock on my left foot. I figured, it's tiny and I could always cover it up for performances and such.

Aw. I love when people ask "Cute tattoo, are you Irish?"

No, I just permanently put a shamrock on my foot and have flaming red hair and freckles

because I'm Spanish.

Grrr. I only get mad because it happens all the time.

Looking back, I think going to the college I did was a big part of what changed my perception of tattoos; it was an all arts school in Philly, with an amazing dance department that accepted students purely based on talent.. not physical appearance. There were some slightly bigger people, some little tiny ones, people with piercings and dyed hair and, yes, tattoos. Visible ones. Big, colorful, pieces of art on their bodies that have not kept them away from performing professionally (some have gone on to dance on cruise ships, at theme parks, and with the Rockettes). A big reason, though, is that the cover-up makeup they have nowadays is pretty spectacular. Not to mention the fact that tattoos, like social media, have become a HUGE part of today's culture.

That being said, I now have five tattoos, with a plan for at least one more. I intended for this post to just share my most recent experience, so sorry for getting a little wordy!

Here goes: I decided that I wanted to get a nice, big cherry blossom tattoo on my side.  I seriously had no idea what cherry blossoms even were until I started dating Scot and came to DC to see them in April of 2008; I have since fallen in love. They are beautiful. They make me happy. They come back year after year after year with just as much gusto and beauty. This obvious sense of renewal and rebirth really resonated with me, especially at a point in my life where things have been changing: I’m switching career paths, I’m getting married, I’m scared for the future and big life changes.. but I know it will be ok. I know that I’ll regenerate with just as much gusto (and beauty?!) as those cherry blossoms. And I wanted/needed to get it done before I graduated from school this past July.

Enter an exceptional tax rebate that paid for the whole thing, and a kick ass tattoo artist, Chris Mead. Chris has done a couple of my other tattoos as well as a bunch of Scot’s. I showed him several pictures and inspirations for my piece, and he drew it up within a couple of weeks. I was hopeful that it could be done it two sessions – one to outline, one to shade. I was also hopeful that it wouldn’t hurt too bad, so you can see how delusional I was.

This baby took 3 sessions, each 2+ hours long. The first, I took a leftover Percocet from when I had my wisdom teeth removed (almost a year to the day before hand, odd), plus a glass or so of wine.

Literally pulling my hair out from pain.