Sunday, June 10, 2012

It's Tattoo Time!!

It's been a few years since I let someone poke me with needles and ink and I figured I was just about due for new tattoo. Plus, I turn thirty-five this year and can use that as an excuse, which somehow justifies getting a drawing permanently etched into my flesh.

Besides, getting a tattoo for your thirty-fifth birthday is totally a grown-up thing to do, right?


I debated telling ML I wanted to get a Twilight tattoo or a picture of Robert Pattinson's face but I was sort of afraid he would actually buy it and have a fucking stroke or something. So I told him the truth.

I want to get a flower and a honeybee. And not just any flower, either. You see, the New Jersey state flower is a meadow violet and the NJ state insect is a honeybee.

 Oooh, pretty...

ERMAGAHD WE'RE ALL GONNA FUCKING DIE!!!!

It's gonna be like a secret ninja New Jersey pride tattoo. Plus, I'm scared fucking shitless of bees, so why not? I completely lose my shit when there is a bee nearby and flail and whimper and run around screaming like a banshee so of course I should get a tattoo of one.

My logic doesn't even make sense to me but I'm just going to go with it.

Unfortunately, there is one small problem with my tattoo plan. I don't draw. My artwork looks like an aging poodle doodled it. Sure, I can grab a few pictures and take it down to the tattoo shop and all that jazz, but I like to see the completed image before I go down there. That way, I can carry it around and stare at it once a day to make sure I actually want it tattooed on my skin. Especially because I want a very specific (I think) style to this tattoo.

I want it to look like a woodcut drawing. Or something kind of like that.

 Style choice subject to change every fifteen minutes...

So, my fellow inked (or not inked!!) Twitards - how do you go about planning a tattoo (even if it's a hypothetical one)? What would you get tattooed and where?

Oh, and anyone a good woodcut artist?

32 comments:

  1. I have several tattoos. 1 I drew myself, the others I have found online and manipulated with Photoshop and my artist, who I went to high school with. I just find the images that I like and play with them using different effects.
    Right now I'm perfecting an anatomical heart to finish my half sleeve.

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  2. As I'm sure you already know, a good tattoo artist can draw something wonderful for you. All you really need is a good idea of what you want. :) You have to have some awesome artists close to you because of where you live. There are alot of artists on Instagram. Good research medium.

    I just got a honey bee (mechanical steampunk style), poppies and a violet on the left side of my back from hip to shoulder blade. Each item represents people in my life. Poppies for my grandfathers who fought in WWII, a violet for my sweet and unassuming grandmother (memorial), and the bee for my family centered, mechanical savvy dad. My three daughters also have their own flowers and my husband too. My back and side all. Next one is going to be on my hip. Have fun with the planning!!

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    1. I love the mechanical-style insects!! I was tossing that style around too.

      Your tattoo sounds lovely and very meaningful. That's one of the things I love about getting ink. It really can mean a lot.

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  3. I have none. But, hypothetically, if I was ever in the Olympics, I would get the rings/logo tattooed on my ankle. Zero chance of that happening.

    Other than that, I've never seen anything I thought I could live with forever. (Hmm. I also have two ex-husbands. See a pattern there?) And I'm old enough that stuff is already sagging. My body is no longer a suitable canvas! Hurry up and get your's!

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  4. Ooh, what a timely post, JJ!

    I am well on the way to my weight loss goal (which I'm sure you are all sick of hearing about). I only have 12kg to go to get to my target of having lost 40kg.

    So what's my reward gonna be? My very first tattoo of course!

    So far all I know is that I want one. I think I want it to be on my back. I know it needs to be somewhere not publicly obvious. But I have no idea what I want it to be of.

    Should you choose the location or the design first? And how the f**k am I supposed to make a decision? Argh....

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    1. We are NEVER going to tire of hearing of your successes! Alas, I am tattoo-less myself so won't be much help in that department...

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    2. I am so happy for your success!!

      Here's my suggestion to you - first decide what you want and then look for pictures that you like. It takes some time but I'm sure there is an image out on the interwebs for all of us (and if you mine, let me know!!). when you find it, print it out and hang it somewhere where you'll see it. A lot. If you still love it after a period time, then you've got your tattoo!!

      A good tattoo artist should be able to draw something for you. You just need to give them the basics. And a good tattoo artist should tell you if the sizing/location of the tattoo you want will look good.

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    3. Congratulations! I'm doing the same thing, but I'm a long way from that tat just yet. It'll be a vine of forget-me-nots around my ankle, in memory of a close friend. I've lost about 3 kilos so far, but 28?! That's awesome. I'm totally jealous, but in a good way ;)

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  5. I went around to parlors and looked at the art of each of the people before I chose who to go with. I have a few and it's funny because I'm afraid of spiders and I have a black widow tattoo.

    Poisonperidot

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    1. I'm glad i'm not the only one who wants to get something she's terrified of tattooed on her body, lol.

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  6. I searched online for the celtic knot that had the right look and meaning, and took that to the tattoo artist. Now I'm looking at getting my second and in the process found inspiration for my third.... All online. The interwebs is a wonderful place.

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  7. I searched online for the celtinc knot that had the right look and meaning and took that to the tattoo artist. Now I'm look at getting my 2nd and in the process found inspiration for my 3rd... All online. The interwebs is a wonderful place.

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    1. I've found a few good tattoos online. It sometimes takes a lot of digging (and periodical images of porn because EVERYTHING turns into porn at some point) to find good images!

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  8. I got my first tattoo for my 51st birthday. I now have 5 and want to get 1 more - a phoenix I think or something along the line of having risen above it all.

    Use the internet to find what you are looking for then copy it into a document, print it out and then take it to your tattoo artist. They can then draw it out.

    BTW, one of my tattoos is a violet like yours as that is the birth flower of my grandson. Just 1 flower, a couple of leaves and two little green lines, one that is the shape of a C as that is what his first name starts with.

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    1. I LOVE that you decided to get a tattoo for your 51st birthday!

      I think a phoenix would be a great image.

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  9. My favorite tattoo I have is my Celtic trinity knot symbolizing my thee sons. But ever since I read the fanfic Clipped Wings and Armored Ink I want something unique and colorful.

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  10. I have three, two of which we will not speak. Suffice it to say when I turned 18 I wasn't great at thinking ahead :)

    I am in the process of getting my third. It's on my right foot. It's a Hobbit door with the words "Not all those who wander are lost" around it. Still need to add some vines and shading.

    My best frand is learning how to tat, so I figured having a tattoo done by my best friend is way cooler than having one that is completely flawless.

    Also, now I can say my dining room table has been used for the following: several haircuts, several hair colorings, the shaving of a dog, and a tattoo. What has your dining room table been used for lately?

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    1. My bestie is a nursing student and we have proudly used my dining room table for drunk IV starts! I love that you are bravely being marked for life by your BF.

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  11. I really wanted to get one for my 30th, but I chickened out. I couldn't think of anything significant that I would actually want to see on my body for the rest of my life and I didn't want something meaningless. http://imm.io/so9l I found that when I was looking for woodcuts and photoshopped it from a strawberry to a violet. I don't know her personally, but I found this blog when I was looking for bee woodblock prints http://woodblockdreams.blogspot.com/search?q=bees I don't know if she takes commissions or not, but her work is beautiful.

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    1. Thanks for the link! I'll definitely be checking her out.

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  12. I know I want to get a tribal hummingbird as my next tattoo either on my forearm or over my rib-cage. I would prefer the latter, but as time goes on I'm afraid the hummingbird will look like a pigeon as my body gets bigger and bigger.

    I wish you success in your next tattoo adventure. I can't wait to see the finish product. And don't mind me if I slap it or swat at you once a see the bee on your skin. I'm not of fan of those creatures.

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  13. I got a tatoo for my 30th birthday. It is a celtic knot in various shades of blue. My husbad was in Iraq when I turned 30 so I needed to do something a little crazy. I love it though and if/when I ever have enough money, I'll be getting another one!

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  14. I found a wonderful artist who does tattoos to make money. He told me to look for some pictures I liked and let him know what I liked about each one. 24 interwebs pictures later, I liked the Celtic cross on one, but the colors on another; the shamrock on this one, but with this detail; and I liked these thistles but maybe put them behind the cross, or something. So Steve drew a few designs and emailed them to me. Then we met to go over what I liked about each. He came up with a final design and we set up the dates (4 sessions). I liked a lot of the art he did in other media as well as his tattoos.

    Oh, I waited a long time to think of what I like and will still like when I am 90, where to get it and where it will be when I am 90, and what will it look like. Well, I was 57 when I had it done on my back. I figure it won't go any where embarrassing from there. So I have a large Celtic cross with lots of Kells, a shamrock in the center and 2 Scottish thistles in an "X" behind it. My heritage, and it can be hidden if I need it to. Even my parents thought the artwork was beautiful and were glad it was not a skull and crossbones.

    So get something original if you can, but be sure to pick your artist carefully. There is a website of tattoos gone wrong that can scare the crap out of you.

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  15. I myself don't want a tattoo - I don't take pain very easily and prefer short term commitment henna tattoos. But the hubs wants a real one. I told him the only two I would allow (haha yeah right...) would be the Twilight wolf pack tattoo or Property of Cheri like a stamp on his left butt cheek.

    But your idea does sound cute. I think you should go for the gold and get it done by one of those "needle and thread dipped in dye" method artists. It would be an interesting story to go with it :)

    PS don't those people who say "just ignore the bee and it will go away" piss you off? No thanks. Screw that. I'm not sticking around for their suicide mission. I'm out of there!

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  16. I just got my first tattoo last week(!!!) of a moose above my right elbow. Moose is the nickname my immediate family calls me - no one's really sure how it came to be, but they use it almost exclusively to address me. I found the image I liked on a pair of pajamas in the Minneapolis airport a few years ago, and was able to track down the retailer's website and photoshop the image from there.

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  17. Seth wood at saved tattoo in NY. There's something about his style that just grabs my attention. Check him out :-)

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  18. i only took me 15 years to get my first tat, i am TERRIFIED of needles, i sat around for 3 hrs one day while my hubs got his 3rd one and finally said "fuck it" lets do this, i had five guys standing around waiting for me to cry......NOT ONE TEAR WAS SHED, i took it like a BOSS!!!! lol, but anyway, my first was a hummingbird because they are the most glorious creatures, i also have 2 twi ish related tats , i have the "more than my own life" quote in Latin on my back with 7 heart shaped leaves and vine under it, and they represent my 4 kids and my 3 grand babies, because i would lay down my life for them, and my other is my newest, i have a yellow butterfly on my wrist with "be Safe" under it, it represents my grandfather,who follows me when i travel in the form of a yellow butterfly, i am trying to figure out #5 now, i want a way to incorporate my kids names into something. they are addicting, but hurt like a bitch!!!

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  19. Funny, must be the season for thinking about tattoos.

    I'm currently planning my 2nd tattoo, and of course in my true style this is going to be big and ongoing. It's only taken me another 15 years since the first to decide what since my first one. I figure what the hell, I'm 50 now so I might as well go for it.

    I would like to do portraits of my pups that have passed on and I want to interconnect them so I'm thinking intertwining ribbons with cherry blossoms and forget-me-nots. This will allow me to hide an eclipse ribbon in there somewhere. Maybe some blue birds flying off with the ribbons for the symbolism. This piece will definitely grow over time, since three of my babies have passed on and I currently have four in my life now and no plans on stopping.

    Placement is the bitch now. I want to start with a portrait of Cinnamon who was a very special girl and the first to pass on, she stole my heart. I was thinking of placing her on my chest, but I'm not sure how that will look. Dog portraits are so masculine that I'm just not sure. So, I may start with her on my upper arm and have ribbon tendrils go down to my wrist and on to my chest with blue birds. I’m thinking it would be kinda cool to wrap this around my body as it grows over the years. Am I nuts, well yah we already know that.

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  20. I haven't read all the comments but I actually do know a great artist Jen.

    I plan my tattoos for 30+ years apparently. I still haven't gone and done it. I have had a plan for over a year now. Need to get on it.

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  21. All three of my tattoo's are versions of celtic knotwork. All three are on locations that never will change with age, gravity, or my ineptitude to get my ass back to the gym. I have knots of both my inner wrists and a good sized one on the back/nape of my neck. All three can also be sufficiently hidden if needed (neck-just let the hair down..and wrists can be covered with nice clunky jewelry or wraps). I want a fourth...gotta figure out another part of me that won't be sagging anytime soon! :)

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  22. I got my first one last year as a surprise for my husband when he returned after working in Iraq for several months. I went in and told them what I wanted and when I came back the next day the artist had exactly what was in my head on a piece of paper. It was totally amazing! It was just a simple decorative heart with my husband's name in it but it was perfect. Now I want another one! I want to get cluster of 3 pink plumeria flowers with a little gecko on the leaf or branch to represent my 3 daughters and my son.
    If you can find a good artist that listens to what you want it makes all the difference in the world!

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  23. Reading these comments makes me want to take the plunge. I want a small scorpion on my lower back over a scar I have and recently I decided I wanted to incorporate my birth date into it. I have a scorpion pic I like but no idea how the numbers would get into it. I am a Scorpio by the way and proud of it.

    I hope when you get this tattoo you will share a picture of it with us :)

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