I celebrated weaning Ruby last week (at 21 months) by getting my second tattoo. I knew I wanted something I'd love for the rest of my life, reflected a little bit of my personality, and was just plain pretty.
My first ambitious idea a few weeks ago was a chest piece mimicking the designs on embroidered Mexican dresses similar to this one. Unique, crafty, and...painful. I couldn't committ to something that big but I knew I wanted something floral and vintage.
I went back and forth between a floral design on a sheet that my Meemaw has at her house (seen in another colorway here), a crewel design that I own, and the floral design on the fabric shown above. I begged Elsie to give me two yards of it when I saw it in her studio about two years ago and then made one of my favorite totes out of it.
I told Brett I'm not going to be able to carry it around anymore! Too matchy, matchy with my tattoo. It may be time to cut it up and turn it into a pillow for our bed. Speaking of pillows, I made Elsie and Jeremy's ring bearer pillow using this same fabric for the back. My friend, Katy, is also always going to be a part of this tattoo memory because she came along and distracted me from my nerves and then...the pain!
I brought my bag in and Ethen, my tattoo artist, put it under the copy machine and then sketched something similar to fit my shoulder. This was my first time using him but I was thrilled with how it turned out. He knew exactly what I wanted without much explanation and was really great to chat with the whole two and a half hours I sat in the chair.
I was doing great during the outlining but when it was time to color things in my skin was pretty tender and I was having a harder time relaxing my muscles and breathing deeply. More than a few people told me I should be able to handle a tattoo after having two children naturally but I say this is a different kind of pain altogether. Maybe it's just me.
My first tattoo, a classic looking sewing machine on my right shoulder blade, took a little over an hour and I had to stop twenty minutes before it was done because I thought I was going to pass out. This one was twice as long but I remembered to eat beforehand and then Elsie and Emma brought me a smoothie to keep my blood sugar up. Katy made sure to keep the stories flowing and we made fun of what is probably the worst movie ever produced in the eighties, Howard the Duck, that was streaming behind us.
Here I am around the two hour mark. This is right when I felt like I'd hit the wall.
And here is the finished piece! I didn't know I'd be this happy with it but I really love how it translated and think Ethen did a fantastic job. I may try to get another large bloom added to the back side soon but we'll see. I'm not really sure I'm getting much more than what I've now got so I want to make it count.
If you're in the Springfield, Missouri area or are looking for someone you can trust that does good work I can fully recommend Ethen at Hearts of Fire.
So, are you a tattooed lady (man) yourself? Do you have one you've been dying to get lately but have to wait on the courage or the funds? I wanna know!
xo,
Rachel
