Two Tattoo Events Worth Noting

For those of you in or around the Atlanta area, here are two events worth checking out in the near future.

The first is on Saturday August 1 from 7-10pm at YoungBlood Gallery. Danielle Distefano (who did the 13 spade on my chest) will be having an art opening. The theme is 100 ladies and all the paintings will be for sale. There are the usual snacks and drinks. It runs through August 30th. She's a total sweetheart and very talented, so if you're in the area, try to check it out.

The second one is the following Saturday August 8. Ink & Dagger will be hosting and since I can't say it any better, here's the info from the man himself:
Starting at noon, Ink & Dagger will open its doors and let the festivities begin with a smorgasbord of manly tattoo designs for $50 or less. After you get your manly badge of honor, head to the big tent and raise a glass to the Y-chromosome while enjoying a plate of the city’s finest BBQ. Stick around for a live sideshow performance from the world famous Capt. Stub-Taggo. He’ll amaze your eyes and astound your senses as he performs timeless sideshow acts including sword swallowing and the human pincushion.

As the day progresses, the Captain will host a carnival of events including an lady dunk tank, arm wrestling showdown, bobbing for lobsters, wing eating contest, cinder block toss, and the human dart board... to name a few!

Everyone wins on “Man Day” but a lucky few will win a free spin on Ink & Dagger’s soon to be world famous “Tattoo Wheel of Destiny”. Once you emerge victorious from one of our manly competitions, your true destiny awaits as you step up and face the wheel. Throw caution to the wind and give it a spin.

The festivities don't end there... The Man Day after party is hosted by our friends at The Graveyard Tavern. You won't want to miss the painted ladies and debauchery!

Don’t worry ladies, if you’ve been thinking this day would have nothing to offer you, you’ve got it all wrong. No man is worth a damn without a good woman at his side. So we wouldn’t dream of excluding you… just keep those skirts short and your necklines low. We’ll see you on “Man Day”!!!

I will, of course, be attending both. Keep your eyes peeled for the redhead in the tattoo print dress and don't be afraid to come over and say hi.

Under Lock and Key

I'm getting me a shiny new tattoo tomorrow. It marks two weeks sober. Two weeks may not seem like much, but I'm pretty darn proud of myself. I'm also going to schedule time to get my foot text covered up. I also had to reschedule with Danielle for my dove, so that's now going to be done the evening of May 27. I'm so excited. I haven't been this excited for a tattoo in so long. *squee!*

Keep your eyes peeled for pictures tomorrow night/Saturday morning!

Number 18 &19

Through some weird hiccup of the universe, I'll be getting paid $130 more than I anticipated next week. So what do I do with the extra windfall? Nothing practical like paying off credit cards. Not for this addict. I'm getting me some pretty new ink. One is already set up and one isn't.

Mark's friend Kevin will be in town next week. I checked out his MySpace and really liked his portfolio. So Mark and I bantered back and forth and he's gonna call me when he gets in town and we'll see where things go from there. I've been batting around the idea of getting an old school lock tattoo. This was the closest I found to what I wanted:



I don't want the banner or the dagger. I want the heart shaped lock with a key and a rose behind it. The rose would be coming out of the right side as the viewer sees it. And all of that has to fit on the inside of my left ankle.

The one that is set in stone is another one by Danielle. I'm getting one of Picasso's doves of peace on my right foot with "Believe" underneath in the Picasso font.



That's set for May 8 at 8pm. Her availability on weekends is filling up fast, which is good news. I wish I had better availability at night, but it just doesn't happen. It's just as well because if this thing with Kevin pans out, then I'll probably have that done next Saturday. So it would probably be for the best to give myself a week off.

And for those keeping score at home, one week sober. Only 176 more days to go until I earn my diamond.

Adventures in Tattooing

A few photos from yesterday. They're actually reversed, which is a bit annoying, but whatever.

Jenn and I started at Ink & Dagger. They'd actually already finished talking about her tattoo by the time I got there. We hung out there for about an hour just chatting. I confirmed with Kurt that we'll be finishing Lucius on Friday night. Then it was off to Only You, Danielle's new shop.

We got there early, but that didn't seem to bother any of them. They're all super nice and I'd trust any of them to work on me. It took a while to get the placement perfect because of the banner, but once we got it, it was cake from there. I'd expected a lot more pain, honestly. There were a few spots that stung a little, but overall, it was a very easy experience. Of course, now I can't wear a bra for a few days, but who cares? I don't think the cats mind. So if you're thinking about getting your lower sternum tattooed, it's really not that bad. Just try to keep your breathing even and don't laugh. It was definitely one of the easiest experiences I've had to date, but it's also fairly small. I think it only took her 20-25 minutes to do the whole thing. Ah the joys of small tattoos.

Danielle was also nice enough to let us bounce some ideas off her. I threw out the idea for my tramp stamp and she gave me a lot of things to think about. It could end up being both a slightly cheesy, but really awesome tattoo. Once I think on it more, I may go back to her and have her refine it and ultimately do it. We'll see.

In other news, I contacted Sacred Heart about the convention. The artist I want to work on me said to contact her about a week before the convention so she knows when she'll be working. Her old school work looks solid. I've been thinking of getting a gypsy head and she's got a Medusa head in her portfolio that looks to be about what I'm looking for. If they have a "Bad Tattoo" category in the competitions, I've been informed that I'm entering it with Ol' Blue Balls. Oh my how awesome that could be.

Secrets and Lies

I cannot keep a secret to bless myself. I swear.

Jen (a co-worker of mine from BBW) and I are getting inked on Friday night by Danielle. She's getting a penguin in one of three possible spots and I'm getting a spade (like the playing card) with the number 13 in it on my sternum/diaphragm area. Since there will be two of us for the first time since I got oh...my fourth tattoo or so...pictures are going to happen. I need to remember to put fresh batteries in my camera.

Prior to that, we're headed over to Ink & Dagger so she can get a consult with Russ. Since he doesn't charge for consults and he's not afraid to give an honest opinion, I figured it couldn't hurt for her to bounce a few ideas off him. She has a decent idea of what she wants and I'm sure he'll help to refine it all further.

Haven't heard from Phil or Lee about my appointment bumping. I'm sure they just didn't feel the need to confirm the change. I still feel bad and I know appointment changes and the like happen all the time. At least I had the decency to call and reschedule rather than just not show up at all. Mark gets really pissed when that happens and understandably so. Phil will absolutely get my money, just two months later than originally planned. Goddamn life getting in the way.

What do we think of gun tattoos? Like an Old West revolver type tattoo? All manner of opinions are welcomed. Come out of the woodwork, loyal readers! I want to hear your thoughts.

Something like this:



Or

Vampire Bunnies and Painted Ladies

If it were kosher to steal a tattoo, I would totally steal this one:



I was obsessed with Bunnicula as a kid. I don't know who this person is who got this tattoo, but s/he is my hero. I wonder if I can convince Danielle to modify it for me so it's not outright stealing, just a homage?

Speaking of Danielle, she'll be working on me in the near future. Of course I couldn't find the damn picture that was my inspiration, but she knew what I was talking about. She seems super sweet and I already know she's got talent. I'm really looking forward to meeting her and working with her. Plus, it's nice to support ladies in the industry and new business owners.

Lucy's still itchy and peeling. I'm kind of over it now. I'd really prefer that she just be finished healing. *sigh* I'll be sure to put some Benadryl cream on her before I go to bed. It was really damn distracting last night. Ol' Blue Balls could probably use some as well. Though he doesn't bother me nearly as much. Probably because he takes up less space. Or I'm just deluding myself into thinking he's less itchy because Lucy itches so damn much. *whine*

I can't wait until Ol' Blue Balls is healed. Then I can have bubble baths again. Joy. At least until we put the pirate hat on him...

Adding On

So I've further solidified my latest ink idea. As I mentioned in the previous post, I thought I would use a quote rather than some kind of scroll work as the "lacy" part of the thigh highs. I stayed up way too late on Wednesday night looking for inspiration through music. A few lyrics seemed like they could work, but I wanted something that would go together. So unless I picked lyrics from the same artist, the odds that found two that would work together were pretty low.

As all good tattoo collectors and artists know, Google is your best friend. I simply searched "tattoo quotes" and through that found my inspiration. It's a quote from Oscar Wilde's play "A Woman of No Importance" and it goes "The only difference between a saint and a sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future". And then the light bulb came on, champagne rained from the heavens and I knew exactly what I wanted. So my right leg will read "Every saint has a past" and my left leg will read "Every sinner has a future". Once I got that set in my brain, more ideas just came flooding out.

I already wanted another pin up girl on my right thigh, so why not give her a sister? One the inside(ish) of my "saint" side will be a blonde pin up with angel wings and a halo in a blue or light green dress. On my "sinner" side will be a brunette with devil horns and a spaded tail in a red dress. The placement would be when I'm sitting indian style and you're looking down at my legs, you'd see them both clearly. I'm leaning toward Danielle Distefano as the artist. I know I've mentioned her before and how I really wanted her to work on me. I think her style would be suited to my vision. I want these two to be more old school than Mae & Lola. They're fabulous, but a little more modern in terms of style. I think Danielle's work has the right mix of old school and pretty. Plus, she does really great color work.

So the plan as it stands now would be finish all my works in progress (Lucy, Alice, & Lucius) by mid-late May and I'm gonna try to give myself a break for a month or so. Then I'll get Mark to cover up my foot piece around July 4. After that, I'll get him to do the base of the bows and quotes so that Danielle will have the base she needs to properly place the girls. So it'll probably be early August for the bows & quotes, then 3ish weeks of healing time, and starting the girls in early September. Knowing me, this timeline will probably get squished up into a much shorter period. In a perfect world, I will be able to give myself a month off just to give my body a break. In reality, it probably won't happen.

Big Pimpin'

I can be such a shameless pimp-tress sometimes. I was on a separate website and someone (I believe she follows this blog. Wave if you do!) asked if anyone had any experience with Timeless Tattoo here in town. Being one of the few Atlantans, I jumped in with both feet and told her I'd never heard word one about them. They have good reviews on Yelp, hands down the most reliable review site on the interwebz, but it was mostly for the owner. Very little was mentioned about the other artists. I looked at the portfolio of the artist she'd picked and his work just didn't seem to suit what she wanted. So I told her to check out Overlord, Memorial 2, and Ink & Dagger. That, of course, got me to thinking who else I wanted to work on me.

I love Dave Kruseman's use of color. It's absolutely fantastic. I have no clue what I'd have him do, but it's so pretty to look at. I also really like Danielle Distefano's work. As I learned from Russ, she and another 13 Roses defector opened a shop in Grant Park. They actually had their big opening on Friday complete with $20 tattoos, which I missed. How come I always miss the tattoo sales? *pout* Anyway, I'd like to have her do something on me as well. So I may wander by at some point and poke my head in. It would help to have an idea first, though. I keep saying I'm going to take a break after I finish Alice, but who knows? I'm a sad, sorry addict.