Much Ado About A 'Too

Tattoo that is! Without further ado, (story to follow) here it is, fresh and wrapped in plastic! I can hardly wait to take the wrap off in the morning!

And here it is today! Of course the colors are more vibrant in person, and especially so against the backdrop of my inflamed tissues, but that doesn't really show as vividly in the photograph as it does in real life, either.

I've been perusing fairies, faeries and fae for a few months now, trying to find just what I wanted. In the end I found a powdery puff faerie in one place, (looks like a faerie wearing a dandelion) a posed faerie in another place and wings in vivid rich variegated reds and browns under fae, and printed them all out to come up with my own design. Then The Beloved said, "This isn't going to fly." I thought he meant Matt couldn't do what I wanted, but no, he meant it technically. "No faerie can fly with these wings. The wispiness looks nice, but they won't hold air to allow the faerie to fly." What? Really? Who is this big grown hulk of a man speaking casually of faeries and fae? But yeah, that's what he said. Then he reminded me of another drawing I'd clipped from the 'net and said I'd have better luck variegating the colors that I wanted with some more substantial wings. So back to the drawing board I went until, madly scrambling until I'd come up with essentially what now resides on my arm! All in the hour before we were supposed to leave to go see Matt.

I'll have to go back next week to get the dandelion looking portion of her body straightened out to be more round and symmetrical. Apparently, white pigment is a heavy metal and along with being immensely more painful than other colored pigments, it also inflames tissues more easily. While it wasn't so prominent within an hour of stopping, while Matt was embedding the white pigment into the tender flesh of my arm, the area ballooned up and was beginning to distort the shape. While The Beloved stepped out to go buy me a soda, I asked Matt how much to add two or three solid white tiny 1 1/2" dandelion fairies at a later date. And that leads us to a bit of a back story...

Way back in October when The Beloved was still in shock that I was actually contemplating getting a tattoo, and then again in late October when we'd made our appointments to actually go through with it, he said very gravely, in my response to having asked him if he was okay with me being inked, "As long as you don't get carried away with it." Because really, he knows me better than I know myself.

When Katie, our former ART gal stopped by yesterday morning to visit, I showed her the moon and we excitedly discussed tonight's festivities of getting the faerie added. She said, "Wow, Tracy, I remember when you were still so antsy about getting a tiny little tattoo and if you should do it or not!" And I said, Oh I know! And for a good two months after the pink and blue were done I would still look at my arm and could hardly believe that I was seeing it there on my own body! But I love this tattoo! And I can't wait to get the faerie added! It's almost become a hobby now! I glanced over at The Beloved at he gave me the look. You know, that look. The one capable of saying an entire phrase and thought in one facial gesture "There! That. Right. There! That's was I was talking about!" But he said nothing aloud and just watched with an entertained smirk while I yammered with my friend. It was there though. That vibe in the room. The one that says we'll be having some sort of discussion about this topic later. And he's not being an ass, and he would never dream of telling me that I can or cannot do something...but like I've said before, he knows me better than I know myself, and knows just how easily I can get carried away with something. He saw the crazed look in my eye. I think the buzzwords for him that made his heart go pitter-patter was when I said It's almost become a hobby now! So, when The Beloved returned with sodas in hand just in time to hear Matt quote me a price and ask, "So you want two tiny little dandelion looking fairies in all white?" The Beloved said incredulously "You're getting more?" and I said Or three, here, here and...here, The Beloved gave me that smirk again. Shook his head. Handed me my soda. Sat down in the corner. Said nothing more.

In my defense, I have to tell you, this round of defacing my body was a breeze. It was so much less painful! Matt did a few outlines and finally commented, "How are you liking this so far? I have a new machine. It seems to be much less painful." And I was loving it. It was so much better than all the other times. This time it felt exactly like I was being rapidly stabbed with a tiny little micro needle about a zillion times per second. All the other times it felt like Matt was levering a rusty 1" chisel against my flesh and trying to forcefully pry my skin off of my body with it! Matt had a few colorful descriptors of my more graphic expressions during the last tattooing episodes, which he quoted back to me in a sing song voice, but that's another story...

So in the car on the way home, I was still amped and excited that my new tattoo didn't hurt, and excited about how vibrant it is, and exactly what I'd wanted, and I couldn't shut up about how much fun this turned out to be this time, and that it didn't take very long this time. The Beloved said, in his sarcastic-but-trying-to-be-diplomatic way, "Well, you didn't have to make him stop fifteen times so you could take a break from the pain this time!" but that only started me up again on how awesome that new machine is and how it didn't hurt much at all! Seriously, I couldn't shut up! He asked several times, with a big goofy grin, "So you like it? You're happy with it?" and I said Yes! I love it! It's a pretty far stretch from the tiny little word 'beautiful' I'd originally wanted up near my wrist, but I'm really happy with it! Oh My Gosh!!! Look at this! Yes, I tried to stretch my arm into his line of vision while he drove through dark streets Matt put a little faerie bubble, a bit of Pixie Dust flying out of the fairies upturned hand! Look at that! Can you see it? Can you? Can you? Huh? Of course he couldn't see it. I could barely see it and it was right there on my arm! He'd look when we got home, he said. But his grin said he was really happy for my delight!

Back at home I was rounding up all my clip art and practice drawings to throw them away, when The Beloved asked what exactly I'd wanted to add next, hedged with the phrase "I thought adding the faerie was going to complete it and all you would be doing from here on out would be touching it up now and then." So I handed him the sample drawings and asked if he didn't think two or three tiny little dandelion fairies wouldn't really compliment the scene. Because, really, it has become more of a story board on my arm. While I'm at it, I think a couple of these lily pads along the bottom would look good. "And a frog too? With his tongue whipping out to catch a fly!" he offers sarcastically. But that led to a discussion of my left arm.

I'd already asked Matt if he couldn't do something to cover the horrid scarring I was left with in the days following the final curtain falling on Hannah's story. It resides on the crease in my left arm, and years after the tissue damage and swelling have gone, I am left with what looks like a junkie's track marks. I don't wear short sleeves to work, ever, even in summer, because it looks exactly like I've described it as. I look like a junkie. So when The Beloved sarcastically suggested a frog on a lily pad, I put my arms together and said, I might just do that. Right here. I've been trying to figure out how Matt could fix this, and that might just work. It will tie this tattoo to that one and won't be something different. "That could work," he says amicably, "but it might also get you started on this arm." And again with the look. He reminded me of how upset I was when he'd gotten his first tattoo. And he recounted almost word for work the whole ranting tirade I'd gone on, even after all these years have passed, ending with my fear that he wouldn't stop until he'd gotten full sleeves.* He was afraid I was getting carried away. He was afraid he'd come home one day to find I'd decorated my body with sleeves.* So I assured him that aside from covering Hannah's scars, my right arm was the only canvas on my body that I had any intention of turning into a tapestry. I promised. And once that was out of the way, he happily agreed that my right forearm was turning into a story to tell. Once he was assured that I would hedge my creativity sometime in the very near future, we started talking lily pads and frogs. I haven't told him yet, but I think a few cattails and a little pond under the lily pads would look awesome! Especially on my left arm crease!

And besides, even if tattooing has become significantly less painful, The Beloved has nothing to worry about here because it is still no less a very expensive art form! So far, all of my work has been paid for by the methods of barter and comp, but the two (or three) dandelion fairies and the frog and lily pads (and pond and cattails!) will be coming out of my own very shallow pocket! Having to save up for the art work will be as powerful a deterrent as any thing else could be.

And now I will say adieu! I have to start on the post about Jack's trip to the cardiologist and all of the new recent naughtiness he's been up to, with the proof of pictures! Stay tuned!

*Tattoo work down both arms, ending at the wrist, like sleeves on a shirt.