Well, it's 12 hours exactly (by my watch) until I sit in that chair again and change myself forever. I've never had an appointment booked for this long, or put this much thought into a piece of work before (as you can probably tell) so I'm spending half my time in quiet contemplation and the other half rather vocally freaking out.
In that spirit I'd like to share with you the tattoos I have already the follies of youth if you will... (And I must say, after my little trip to the London Tattoo Convention this weekend (click here for the few photos I actually managed to take before my camera up and died on me), I now feel decidedly unadventurous up until this point.) Sorry about the crappy image quality by the way, it's almost midnight and sheer laziness prevented me from making them purdy. But here we are, a whistle stop tour around my skin on the last evening it will ever look as it does now:
My Gecko (tattoo number 1)
My first tattoo and still my favourite, I intend to have him added to at some point, possibly by giving him a friend and some form of background to sit on. In other news: no it isn't creepy to assign personalities to my tattoos. Leave me alone.
He lives on my left hip.
My Snowflake (tattoo number 2) and my Swirly Flower Thing (tattoo number 4)
Every now and then I catch myself thinking "Hmmm, well maybe my snowflake's OK after all" and then I get someone to take a photo and I remember just how much I hate it. I hated it on paper, I have no clue why on Earth I thought I'd like it any more on my skin. The idiocy of youth I guess. This one is getting re worked as part of my back piece.
I love my most recent tattoo, the beautiful clean lines are a testament to Kanae's skill, I'm continually amazed at how much soul she managed to put into a tiny piece of flash. There is a part of me that thinks that maybe I shouldn't have got it done as it does hinder my ability to get a fully done back piece. But then I remember why I got it and I realise that there really was no other option. We'll see how Kamil manages to work around it as it's still fairly low down on my back. If it has to be covered or worked in then so be it. I still have the flash, I may find myself getting it done elsewhere afterwards.
My Rose (tattoo number 3)
This one has the most meaning to me and is the one that most people see as it lies on my stomach just above the waistband of most pairs of my jeans. Incidentally it isn't just crappy picture quality - it was a bad tattoo in the first place and then I picked at it. Considering where I was in my life there was no way I wasn't going to subconsciously ruin it so I only partly blame myself. I do like the placing though and I intend to expand on it gradually, adding more flowers and some ivy leaves, in between getting my bigger pieces done
I'll get into the symbolism of these images at some point (hint: there really isn't any, shocking I know - I'm more of a "time and place" girl rather than a "picture" one) but here they are for the curious (and pestery) among you.
