Chicago Ink.
Lookit my soul sister today! Miss Cricket and I posted about the same thing WITHOUT SPEAKING BEFOREHAND. The Internet is a strange, awesome place.
In my quest to be somewhat of a hardcore mother, I have gotten two tattoos (look, I may have to have the mini-van with the soccer stickers on it, but I refuse to wear mom jeans OR get a perm). One per foot. This serves the twofold purpose of having something to distract the viewer from my lovely (read: ugly) feet, AND allows me to feel hardcore without having to show them off. I can easily cover them up when the situation dictates it, and sometimes (especially during the winter) even I forget that I have them at all.
Each has a special significance to me, so when I look at them, I am reminded of painful life lessons that I had to learn by myself (because, I suppose, someone just TELLING me wouldn’t have left such an impression. And I am painfully stubborn, so even IF someone had told me, I probably would not have listened).
Being a now-tattooed person, I of course want more. Unfortunately for me, however, I have been unable to decide where exactly to put them. I want to finish each of my feet with a sock (my own term here instead of a “sleeve” because obviously, you don’t have sleeves on your feet), a sort of mosaic covering to blend each of them into a scene (I have a gecko on one foot and a pink seahorse on the other. I’m thinking some background for each).
What has prevented me is the fact that it is winter, therefore requiring covering each foot against the elements (summer is obviously better for this) and the intense pain that comes along with having a foot tattoo (I need to forget the pain first). Rest assured, I will do this, probably for my 28th birthday (all of the other ones have come on my birthday, which is in the middle of the summer), but maybe sooner.
But this isn’t enough for me, not even close.
Now I really want to get a tattoo for each of my children. Ben will be represented by Max of Where The Wild Things Are and Alex by The Little Prince. And my (possible) last child will have to wait and see what he or she is represented by. So I have to wait until I am done with child bearing to have this one put on as well (I am nothing if not fair), as I am planning to do a large box down between my shoulder blades with all of them blended together.
(note: I’ve always had stringent guidelines for where I wanted a tattoo placed. It had to be coverable AND not in a place that will be easily stretched out by sagging skin. I don’t want to gain 10 lbs and have my cute tummy tattoo stretched from a pair of dice to a domino. Not cool. I admire the hell out of arm tattoos, but I am sure there will come a day when I am annoyed (and ashamed) by my placement of a picture of Kurt Cobain there. A back tattoo, although being mainly hidden to me, seems to be the path of least resistance here, as it fills all of my qualifications for a tattoo.)
I haven’t divulged WHAT life lessons my tattoos remind me of, because that is an entry for a different category, but I’m curious about YOU.
Do you have tattoos? Do they mean anything to you (you don’t have to tell me WHAT they mean if you don’t want to. Aunt Becky doesn’t like to pry), or did they just look cool? Do you want another one? Have you regretted getting them (i.e. your old boyfriend’s name on your boob. Each time I got a tattoo, there was always someone in their changing a name on a tattoo. Mental note: do not tattoo anyone’s name on your body unless it is your own.)
If you have no tattoos, do you hate them? Think they’re tacky (my mom hates them with a passion rivaled only by her intense hatred of cigarettes.) and lame?
Hey, I postedd on the same topic today! I am woefully uninked.
I have no tattoos at the moment, but I intend to get a sun on my big toe when we aren’t in hock up to our eyeballs.
I’ve got an orca on my right shoulder blade. I’m planning another of a butterfly that will hopefully be in place in the coming months. I really wanted it by my bday in Feb, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. I also want tattoos to represent my kids, but am working on the selection yet. 😉
I have a running cartoon pig on my right boob and rolling dice on butt. Both mean something important to me, but I wanted them in a place that no one could see unless I showed them.
I have a butterfly on my arm. I heart butterflies and it has my 4 favorite colors in it. I got it a few months before I started seeing my now ex-husband. Heh. I want to alter it into a fairy or some bullshit like that.
I really want to tattoo my son’s name linked by a heart that has his birthday inside on my wrist like a bracelet. I’m just not sure how I want it to look. I mean, I have a picture of it in my head and it’s bad ass, but I’m not sure how that would actually turn out. Then there’s the whole drawing it out thing that I’m pretty sure I can’t do and wouldn’t be able to describe even if I tried. o_O
Woefully un-inked to date, but I want one! I just haven’t quite decided what (or where!) I got a temporary one this summer (cupcake on the small of my back) to try it out, and I liked it, but it wasn’t quite “the one”
I have many of the same rules as you Becky (easy to hide, no nasty stretching) and it will have something to do with cakes and cupcakes; maybe I’ll do it next year to celebrate my 1st year in business! LOL
I have not a single tattoo or piercing anywhere on my body. Mostly its for two reasons:
1. I am terrified of needles.
2. I am aesthetically challenged.
I am fairly indifferent to tattoos. This goes along with being aesthetically challenged. Ive never seen one that looked overly cool. They are just something other people do.
I have two tatoos, both of which kind of suck. One is a fairy on my stomach I got when Iwas eighteen, the otehr is on my upper arm, it’s the symbol for venus – the circle with a cross coming out the bottom.
I have been thinking about getting a small black circle with a white, lowercase j inside it for my son, on the inside of my wrist. I like to show my tatoos. It makes me feel hard and cool, which I’m decidedly not.
3. I have 3.
first one a quarter size peace sign, inside my right hip color is “tye dyed”, very hippy, very retro Reason: I was getting divorced and kept saying “I just want some peace”…well, true to form, I got it.
second one is a chinese symbol for peace *see emerging theme* on the outside of my left calf, colors are blue/green kind of running into each other a bit. Reason: my husband (the second and ONLY good one I have had, he will be my last one) and I lost a child at 5 and 1/2 months gestation. Her name was to be Annalise Morene and our hearts were broken, she needed a place to be remembered and since the only place she had ever been was my belly….and I’m anti “tattoo where I can stretch”, her rememberence ended up on my calf. (my husband has an abraxas angel on his shoulder, she is me, looking out for him, when we lost Annalise, he had a setting sun placed behind the angel)
third one – is an offering to friendship. Our close friends got married in a very posh hotel, intimate dinner then we all went to a bar in Chicago, the Red Frog Pub. (My nick name is Red) An amazing time was had by all, it was the epitome of what I think a wedding celebration should be…so I took a digital of the logo from the front window and when I returned home, set an appointment and got a “red frog” tattoo on my lower back *the tramp stamp*. It is remeniscent of an aztec drawing not cartoony at all. *I just made up a word…first one of the day, many more to come*
I chose all these for various reasons, but make no mistake, they all mean so much to me….i could not express in words, it took art on my body to do it.
1. my freedom
2. my longing for a child and the devestation that caused havoc in our lives
3. my fierce loyalty and devotion to my friends who make me feel so very lucky to be in the “circle”.
Additionally, they are all placed so that they can be covered up for business purposes.
thanks for letting me share.
k
I, too, have the “tramp stamp” and it is a combination of the two most cliche girl tats. I had a sun first, and then had a butterfly built around it. I think that it would be hilarious to contine to add cliche tattoos to my already-too-big tat on the lower back, but then again, how funny will it be when I am 60?
Never mind – that is hilarious at any age…maybe I will add a rose with a dragon breathing fire on it, right next to the sun-butterly that will then be surrounded by chinese characters and hearts, a Fairy holding an Eight ball could be watching Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes) pee on a dancing Jerry Bear with a Skull face…all outlined in a tribal band. Am I missing anything?
Yeah…that would rock.
At the moment I have two – one on my ankle and one on my back. The ankle tattoo is a Celtic knot of my own design with the words “electus prosapia” (chosen family in Latin, from my assertion that friends are the family you get to choose for yourself.) The one on my back is the first step of a planned full-back piece. So far it is two snakes entwined in a leminscate (infinity sign) at the bottom and in a specific yoga pose at the top. There is a crescent moon above it and the tropical zodiac symbols above THAT. It represents the earth element in symbols and colors. There will be similarly symbolic representations of fire, water and air eventually, and they will be centered around a symbol of the Wheel of the Year.
KRISTEN ; just add a heart, with a knife thru it, and where the blood drips, a rose grows….
perfection.
LMAO, thanks
I am drawing out this “Super-Tat” in my mind…I think I will use some of Kim’s awesome ideas, and couple that with a sash with an ex-boyfriend’s name on it. The Calvin could then maybe be peeing on the ex-boyfriend’s name for an extra touch of class.
Oh God…that would be AWESOME! And Becky – I am not kidding – I need to get out to the ‘burbs and have Daver help me make a public blog for me to post pictures of aforementioned “Future Super-Tat.” Hawt.
Kristin, that is a rockin’ fresh idea. You are missing one thing, however, to make this truly cliche.
You need to somehow put an ex-boyfriend’s name somewhere near there (or on your boob. Boob is good) and then have then try (badly) to cover it up.
And I cannot believe how many people have tattoos. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
OH YEAH. And what Kim said, too.
(Kim, your tribute to your daughter is beautiful. I’m sure the tattoo is gorgeous.)
Kristin, come on out WHENEVER YOU WANT!
I have volunteered Daver to help with this.
It’s gonna BE AWESOME!