My 6th tattoo was the only one I’ve ever gotten on a bit of a whim and the only one I’ve gotten with other people around. The employees of the pie shop in a library in a library where I worked at the time all decided we wanted to get tattooed. Some were people who had many tattoos, those who had none, and those that got swept up in the excitement. We made the plans early in the week and went one day after work. I was the last to get tattooed, so the others had already gotten thier tattooes and left! So, in a way, I ended up getting this tattoo alone, as well. I talked with the artist, both when I made the appointment and when I got to the parlor, about a small quartz cluster on my calf. As with many of my tattoos, I want to impress upon the artist that I want to stay away from phallic symbolism. For the only tattoo that was not planned out well in advance I was pleasantly surprised at how awesome one came out. I was expecting less, but I ended up loving this tattoo.
Tattoo Story: Red Wing Black Bird
For my 5th tattoo, I returned to my first artist. She had been traveling the world, doing conventions, visiting exotic lands, etc… and had left the shop where I had gone previously. This time, I traveled to Manhattan to get my tattoo. As with all my tattoos, I worked with her to come up with what I wanted. I sent photo reference and she sent back sketches until we had something just right. I knew I wanted a Red Wing Black Bird, which is my favorite bird (a very loud Jersey bird, in my opinion), and a reminder of my home on the coasts and marshes of NJ. She already knew that I like minimal color, thin lines, lots of black and grey, and came up with a piece that incorporated all this and several of the images I had sent. This was a long detailed session, my first tattoo where I had to take a short break to get up and move my body. I was extremely please with how it turned out and still am! That night, I had a bar backing shift, which I would not recommend after getting tattooed. For 5 days after, my arm ached in a way I had never experienced or could have imagined. At one point a few days later, I remember being in a restaurant eating sushi and just wanting to cry. It was a weird moment where I thought perhaps I was going to die. But a few more days passed and my arm was fine and I have a lovely tattoo to wear forever, so it was all worth it!
Tattoo Story: Tribute to New Orleans
I mistakenly talked about my tattoos out of order! In the last installment, I said that my cat jaw bone was my third tattoo but it was in fact my fourth! That means to me, that I have gone far too long without getting tattooed, if I can’t even remember what order they were done in. My first tattoo was created in Feb around my birthday, my second in March, my third was in May on a trip out of state. My fourth, previously written about, was in December of the same year.
This is a pretty terrible pic, but it’s hard to get a shot of the back of your own leg. Step back from it tor make your window very small to view it better. Maybe I will retake this photo one day.
My THIRD tattoo was created four months after my first. It was on a whim, in a way. I had traveled to New Orleans for the first time and was so taken by the city, I decided a permanent keepsake was in order. I only had three days in NOLA, and started looking for a tattoo shop almost from the start. I found one, way out in the Bywater, that had the right vibe for me. It was brightly colored with taxidermy and various alters, voodoo symbols and artwork. But it looked lived in. The man who I first talked to didn’t immediately put me at my ease. Scruffy and gruff he asked if I wanted a fleur de lis. Absolutely not. I tried to better explain why I was struck by New Orleans and what a tattoo momento meant to me. He got it a little more and suggested a modified voodoo symbol. Being voodoo practitioners, he and his wife could safely make me something so that I was not tinkering with bad juju, he explained. His wife would be tattooing me the next day. And then his wife emerged from the back room with a book of voodoo symbols. She was striking. Rail thin with pale porcelian skin, covered in bright and bold tattoos. She had white blond hair, delicate limbs. The longest neck I’ve ever seen, also covered in tattoos. She smiled and showed a row of silver teeth. She was eight or nine months pregnant, her huge belly protruding from her lithe body, like an hard boils egg under a silk napkin. The suggested a tribute to the goddess, Erzulie Freda, and I agreed. I was to come back the next day. When I did, the matron of the shop was very sweet, so ethereal and beautiful, perhaps an incarnation of the goddess herself, all love and ink. I laid down on the table making the regular small talk one does until the tattooing starts. When she began the tattoo, I was shocked! I had only been tattooed by one artist previously, a lovely Japanese woman with an exceedingly gentle touch. I only imagined this white light creature would be the same way. But she went at my upper calf with a determination and frim grasp. I felt like someone was digging a dull spoon into my leg, just below the knee, for more than an hour. It was hard to reconcile the two sensations together: this delicate tattooed sprite, and her jackhammer approach. In the end, I came away with a sore leg, a perfect tattoo souviner, and a great story.
Looking back at this tattoo, I realize I haven’t thought of the symbols meaning in a long time. In some ways, I wonder if it was a bit of a joke on the tourist, as Erzulie’s nature can be fleeting and vain. In other ways, I think they might have known a lot more deeply what I needed than I did at the time. This was right after I met my now husband, we were texting while I was on vacation. Either way, then and now, I believe they gave me the exact right talisman to carry forever.
Tattoo Story: Cat Jaw Bone
My third tattoo is on the back of my upper leg. By this time in my tattoo jounrey I had gotten two in two months and I was hooked! I thought for several months about what I wanted next. I decided I wanted something cat related, something natural, and earthy. I landed on a cat jaw bone. I found several pictures online and worked with the same artist that did my first tattoos to come up with an image that I loved. I tried soemthing diferent with this tattoo and let the artist do some shading. I really love how it came out, but it is the only tatt I have with shading and probably will be the only one. Bc of the placement, I barely ever think about this tattoo, I never see it!! I still like it, it goes with the overall vibes of my tattoos, and it’s a beautiful peice. I do want to get it touched up and possibly add to it in the future, not bc I don’t like it but be it might need some love!
A few words on taking a picture of the back of your leg: It’s hard. And not flattering. But oh well.
Do you have any tattoos that you never see?
Tattoo Story: Cup of Coffee
My second tattoo might seem a little out there, or childish, but to me it fit perfectly with what I want my tattoos to be and how I want my body to be decorated.
I got my second tattoo only a few months after my first. I knew that I wanted more and more right away. It was an easy choice to get another from the same artist as my anchor.
My coffee cup clearly depicts my love of coffee, but it’s also a replica of the cups I served coffee out of for 8 years at one of my favorite jobs. It’s very whimsical but it’s remembrance is very special to me.
Do any readers have tattoos of food or drink?
Something New: Hand Poked Tattoos
Disclaimer: This is not a tutorial. I am not a professional tattooer, and I am not giving anyone advice or guidance on this subject. I am only relaying my own experience and documenting my own journey.
Two years ago I decided that I really wanted to learn how to do stick and poke tattoos.
Stick and Poke is a method of tattooing where one uses a tattoo needle to manually imbue ink into the skin with no tattoo gun or electricity. Stick and poke, or hand poked tattoos, are pretty trendy right now, but it is also an ancient tradition practiced by many cultures around the world.
To start, I did a ton of research into this craft. I watched videos and read articles, as one should do when their goal is to poke permanent art into another's (or their own) skin. Eventually, I decided I just had to try it, so I invested in a few supplies (some research showed that many can be bought off tattoo websites or amazon) and started practicing. My research showed that practicing on fruits, pig skins, or fake human skins were the most common methods. I chose fruit. After a few months of practice on oranges, I decided it was time to test it out upon myself.
I remain super pleased with how my first tattoo came out!
Since I have several tattoos, I knew sort of what to expect. I had never gotten a hand poked tattoo before, and they are a bit different that machine tattoos, but nothing drastically different in method or pain level. It is much slower, which is why the designs tend to be more simple and the colors less.
So far, my journey has been very slow going, and each year, I make it a goal to try and do more. After my first tattoo on myself, I did two more on my husband and one on my BFF. I have plans with a friend starting her own hand poked journey to have a poke party soon, and I'm excited for it!
As with many of my goals, I'm talking about it here to have a record of it, give myself inspiration and hold myself accountable. I love this space to be able to look back and check how I'm progressing on the things I want to accomplish.
I'm really excited to hear what people what me to put on them with hand poking! My next steps are to start thinking of ideas and working up sketches. I've tried sketching them before, and it's been in my goals many times, but I hope having an end game makes me stick with it!
The first tattoo I made on my husband and my third tattoo ever.
Do any readers have hand poked tattoos? What has been your experience with them?
Tattoo Story: Anchor
It might be an unofficial goal for 2018 (and every year) but I would love to get more tattoos this year. Actually, I think about my next tattoos constantly. Does everyone feel like this?
In honor of my future tattoos, I thought I would take a look back at my current tattoos. I hope I can remember in what order I got them!
Getting your first tattoo is so odd bc you have no idea what to expect!! It did not go as I was thinking but one thing was for sure, I loved it! This tattoo was not at all how I expected it to come out. I had had ideas of what it would look like, but it working with another person on art is always a surprise! My artist was Ryoko and she was working at Brooklyn Tattoo at the time.
I always get asked if I intend to put color on my tattoos, but I do not! I love my thin black and grey line work. I hope that all my tattoos are semmetrical, so this tattoo is on my left forearm, and I have another one of the opposite arm.
What is the story behind your tattoos?