Tattoo Tuesday V.47

Occupation: home health care, stay at home mom

Age of first tattoo: 17

Favorite tattoo: Picking favorites is my least favorite. Ha! I really have a hard time with picking a favorite anything, especially when it's something I love. A favorite tattoo, song, band, movie - all nearly impossible, but if I HAD to pick, I'd say probably my knuckles.

Featured tattoo/location: left leg half sleeve (from the knee down), koi fish/maneki neko. I'm sure everyone has seen a maneki neko, or good luck cat in the window or on the counter of a chinese restaurant. After a quick googling, I learned that different colors represent different things, black being for luck. I chose a black maneki neko for 6 years of reoccuring pre-cancerous cervical tissue that has resulted in 3 biopsies and 2 surgeries.

Well, I'm not big on there being huge sob stories behind every tattoo. I think you should have fun with tattoos and not take them so seriously all the time...get silly! I never worried about if I was going to like the piece later in life - I just went for it. Since I have been getting tattooed for 13 years, I of course have tattoos that I wouldn't chose to get today, but nothing that bothers me to the extent of even entertaining the idea of removal. They're all part of my journey. I do have cover ups, though.

There is an aspect of being married to a tattooer that means accepting the tattoo when it is offered to you. I have quite a few pieces where Geoff would tell me he wanted to tattoo me, and I had nothing to do with the subject or process. some were spur of the moment. For instance, I'd stop by the shop on the way home from work and end up getting my thigh tattooed for 3 hours. I consider myself lucky. Believe it or not, part of this half sleeve is a cover up.

Oh, goodness yes. Like I said, I've been getting tattooed for 13 years, pretty steadily. I stopped counting a long time ago. At one time, I tried to think of how many hours I had sat for, and when that became hard to keep track of, I began thinking in terms of percentage of body covered.

I have the tops of my feet done, black and grey portraits of Frankenstein and bride, toes, left leg from knee down, right leg - shin and back of calf, as well as thigh. Left side panel from bottom of my bum, up to my armpit, both arms sleeved, knuckles, chest, upper back/back of neck, and on, and on, and on.

Absolutely. There are areas that I plan on leaving blank (like the tops of my hands) but I don't see myself stopping any time soon. It's too much a part of my lifestyle and surroundings. so many of my friends are artists. Tattoo parties where we all sit and tattoo each other and then swap off are not uncommon occurrences. That's usually where the silly ones come from. Some of them are inside jokes.

My family and friends are fine with them. My family wasn't always but they stopped making comments long ago. At one point, my mom told me to stop and she was the one who took me to get my first! My dad always told me I was too pretty to "do that" to myself. Nowadays, I offer to show him whatever is new and he declines, but I usually catch him trying to look at it. I think I softened him up a bit when i showed him my 'daddy's girl' tattoo. He tried to act like he wasn't charmed but I knew he was.

I absolutely have run into negativity because of them. I have found it much more difficult to get a job despite my education. I look great on paper, but the interview is usually where I lose out. Everyone knows it's illegal to discriminate but everyone also knows that the easiest way around that is to lie and say you weren't chosen for a different reason. The fact of the matter remains that people don't want someone associated with their business/name, etc who has zombie heads at the center of blooming roses tattooed on their arm. It's the sad truth. It's going to be a long time before people are cool enough to realize that someone can be heavily tattooed without being a criminal, or even just uneducated.

I've always gotten a kick out of telling people I'm the daughter of a police officer, a college graduate, a mother, no criminal record, and have spent the majority of my adult life either working with children or the elderly.

As far as significant others go, I have dated people with and without tattoos. I don't really have a "type." I've even had serious relationships with those who are lacking. it is nice however, to be with someone who shares the same passion for it that i do. It gives you an immediate and strong bond within a friendship or romantic connection.

5) Any advice for those interested in getting tattooed but haven't gotten one yet?

Don't spend too much time thinking about the tattoo itself. I've met people that have literally been thinking about this one tattoo for YEARS. Have fun with it. You have one life, one body. Don't take it too seriously. I'm not saying nothing can have meaning, but when you start getting into "I want 4 stars, alternating blue and pink for each of my children" type shit, you're going too far and it'll annoy the artist. Make sure you pick an artist that you've researched and trust. Give them a basic idea and let them have some creative freedom.