Meet My New Tattoo She’s a Beauty

Any of my regular readers will  know that I am a nut for tattoos and have been for the last five years. I now have my fifth tattoo and it is my second larger one. I know, I know…

“Hi, my name is Delaney and I am a tattoo addict.”

I think there should be a support group for tattoo addicts. No, really…I do! Everyone that has one will tell you to your face that getting tattooed is very addicting. Problem is we don’t believe it when we hear this. I know I thought I would only get one, maybe two when I first seriously thought about being inked. We see how long that lasted!

I am not addicted to the discomfort of being tattooed. I could live without that and for the two that are on my wrist and inner arm, I hardly had any discomfort at all let alone downright pain. Now the two I have on my back? I earned those babies, let me tell you!

Each person is different and has different parts of the body that accept tattooing with little notice or that will peel you off the ceiling. My back below the shoulder blades is very touchy.

Nolan did my newest tat and he did the dreamcatcher as well. I love his art and he is a very gentle tattoo artist without a heavy hand. We decided to do the outlining and the black/gray shadings first, then come back in three weeks or so to finish up with the colors. That was the part that about did me in.

Here is a  picture from the initial session and yes, I am swollen and red:

 

 

 

Here she is finished but not healed up yet. I think that Nolan did a fantastic job and I absolutely love it! I did feel every single bit of the coloring in of the roses though and I will admit to being glad when it was over but I have a great piece of art for the discomfort.

I tell people that are thinking about getting their first tattoo to watch out because they are addicting but I know they won’t pay me any more attention than I did to the people that told me that. You learn it the hard way unless you are a total wimp and can’t handle the occasional discomfort.

My daughter tells me she will probably have to explain why one grandma has tattoos and one doesn’t but I’ll just tell her that I’m the artistic one. My daughter is predicting that before her baby is 5yrs old I will probably have a full sleeve. I laughed at that…at least initially then I thought “Hmm, that could be cool and interesting.”

See, she’s putting tattoo visions in my head and encouraging my addiction, but I still love her and apparently she still loves her “unconventional and colorful” mother. What more could a mother ask?

 

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Tattoos: Attention Seeking or Self Expression Part 2

In Part 1 of this topic I addressed the issue of non-tattooed individuals thinking of tattoos as “graffiti”  on the skin of those of us that are tattooed. In Part 2 I want to address the notion that all of us with tattoos are “attention seeking” and that that’s it in a nutshell. No other reason to get a tattoo is there?

I cannot speak for everyone with a tattoo but I personally have mine for a variety of reasons. My first tattoo is a tribal style butterfly on my inside right ankle. I see butterflies as a symbol of change and growth and this butterfly was chosen to represent my own personal change and as a reminder of that.

My second tattoo is also a butterfly sitting on a flower vine with my daughter’s name underneath. This is located on the inside of my left wrist since this is the side closest to my heart. Now I love my son as well but my daughter is my first child and only girl. This tat is symbolic of her growth from a child to womanhood and into her own person yet the vine/flower is the connection to me, her mother.

My third tattoo is the Geisha on my back which is my largest tattoo (at least to date) and represents ultimate femininity and gracefulness all of which I am not. I have always been more of a tomboy and a total klutz.  My Geisha represents what I sometimes wish I could be, a total “girly-girl” and my longing for something I will never be.

All of these tattoos can be covered up though the tats on my ankle and wrist are usually visible but they don’t jump out at you. They are definitely  not  what you would classify as “in your face” at all. Most people don’t even realize that I have tattoos so how is getting a tattoo attention seeking behavior?

Attention Seeking:

People craving attention can use any number of ways to receive it from clothing and hairstyle choices, acting up or acting out behaviors, and yes, piercings  and/or tattoos. But to call any form of self expression as being attention seeking is ludicrous and just plain dumb.

For example:

Once upon a time any man with a crew cut was a military man and any shaven headed man was a racist “skinhead”.  Women with long hair and makeup were feminine and heterosexual and any woman with extremely short hair and no makeup had to be a lesbian. Sad part is that some people still believe this outdated stereotyping. I know – I don’t wear makeup (very rarely) and have had extremely short hair styles as well as not normally wearing dresses or super feminine style clothing. Some people during my life have thought I was gay solely based on appearances.

Now I’m also not dumb enough to state that no one with tattoos is ever seeking attention. All one has to do is see someone like this to know that is not the case:

I see this as both a form of self expression and attention seeking since it is very “in your face” and you will see the tattoos and piercings prior to seeing the actual person she really is. Yes, she chose this and while I don’t agree with someone doing this to themselves I defend their right to do it.

But how is this attention seeking?

This is a lovely tattoo which can be and probably is, covered up and not visible at all times. It is artistic and probably symbolic or meaningful to the wearer.

Most tattooed people enjoy the art and share their love of it by wearing it on their skin. What is the difference – other than the permanency of it – from someone choosing hairstyles and/or clothing to express their individuality or self expression.

Goth in the extreme:

Semi-Goth and more acceptable:

Is the first one attention seeking? Sure, but it is also a form of self expression just done in the extreme. Any “style” can and is done in varying levels of extremism from mild to “in your face” whether it is more normal and mainstream styles up to and including fringe styles. To lump everyone not fitting into the narrow definition of normal (what is “normal” anyway?) is being very dismissive of whole sections of the human population.

What do you think when you see these individuals? Are you sure you are right? Are they seeking attention or just forms of self expression?

We are all unique individuals with our own preferences, styles and form of self expression. What a dull and boring world we would have if this were not true. Try and see people for who they are not to try and pigeon hole them by what they wear, how they are dressed or whether they have piercings or tattoos. Enjoy the uniqueness of life and don’t be afraid to be an individual. If someone laughs or points a finger than they have a problem not you. While we will not all agree on all styles or extremes of styles, let us agree that we can disagree and we can all express ourselves how we choose to especially in the United States of America.

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Tattoos: Attention Seeking or Self Expression? Part 1

If you are one of the few readers that have read this blog for very long you know I have tattoos and that I am a tattoo enthusiast. I have written several blog posts about tattoos and I even have a blog devoted to women with tattoos. Women’s Ink is my attempt to soften the stigma of women who have tattoos since this is still a major taboo for quite a few people.

A gentleman left a comment on one of my blog posts equating tattoos with graffiti and lumped everyone with tats into an “attention seeking” group as well as (basically) stating that you only see graffiti in the lower class sections of town so why would you want to do that to your body?

Okay, I want to address this one step at a time because even though this comment was over a month ago it still bothers me. Now I will state up front, I did not delete this comment but I did answer it though not as thoroughly as I would have liked to so I will with this posting.

First: Graffiti

This is what is most generally thought of as “graffiti” which to me is more “tagging” and there is a major difference. This is the type of graffiti that I believe he was referring to:

While this still has an artistic flair to it this is what general graffiti is seen as. This is graffiti/tagging and not artistic in the least as far as I’m concerned:

These are examples of actual graffiti –style art done by artists whose medium happens to be on buildings or on the street. These are not usually covered up.

This is a sampling of famous graffiti artist Banksy and I guarantee,  no one paints over his work since being tagged by him will increase the worth of the building.

Banksy is known as a guerilla artist and his art is usually social commentary in an art form. People even get Banksy based art tattoos:

Personally, I love the Banksy tattoos and I don’t consider his art or the tattoos as something to be  looked down upon or to dismiss it as “just graffiti” because there is a major difference between  kids with a can of spray paint and artists using a different style of canvas.

This is an example of a bad tattoo. Bad concept. Horrible execution since it’s misspelled. This is what I think of when people talk about bad tattoos with writing:

In part 2 I will address the issue of artistic self-expression VS attention seeking behavior.

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