Sunday, August 19, 2007

Marker

Last week I did what I've been wanting to do since almost last December or so:

I got a new tattoo that marks my surviving the past couple of years. This is a very personal tattoo, and when I explain it to people it either sounds ridiculously cheesy or slightly psychotic. In reality, in my reality, it is neither. I knew several elements that I wanted to incoporate and I took a very rough mock up to a studio and Ed drew up the design for me. I was a little nervous because I'd picked the shop b/c it was Painless Steel (a branch of where we went in Missoula) but when we got there it wasn't Painless anymore. I talked with Ed and looked at his portfolio and he gave me a price quote and told me some ideas for the design. A couple weeks later (last Wednesday) I went back to the shop. Ed showed me the design and I was amazed. It was so much better than I could have imagined. At that point any remaining reservations I had were gone. 2 hours later, I walked out with this.



After it heals, in about 7 days, I'll go back for the rest: filling in the butterflies, shading, touch ups. Then it will be finished. When I got home to show Keith he was equally amazed. So despite some trepidation about it not being Painless Steel, Ed @ Anatomy Tattoo won our business for the foreseeable future.

And that afternoon I met Matt Gone. He works down the street from our building and we see him pretty often but I'd never talked to him. He saw my fresh tattoo and gave me his business card. He said he'd just gotten a new one, too, and lifted his pant leg which was entirely covered in tattoos. And he pointed to a train and said it was a I-think-I-can train. Ok.

"I just wanted to do something nearly impossible before I die.

I was also born with birth defects. The tattoos hide them and make my body something I can be proud of instead of hating.

This project began in 1990 and has cost over $65,000 so far. $20,000 of that was earned as a dishwasher in New Orleans' French Quarter."

Interesting guy. He's been on Ripley's Believe It or Not. And he's been tattooed by The Enigma!


See, Mom--it could be worse.

We're still making the new apartment home-y. Keith hung these frames. All free from the guy who used to have this apt.

We're going to paint the wall. And then hang some Items in the frame. 2-d. 3-d. Recycled paint is only $5/gal, so I think we're going that route. Brick red? Gray?

Here's a photo straight out of the 90s, color-wise from our dog walk the other day. This is my sister circa 1992, in leaf form. Ok, me, too. But she was the color coordinating freak.

The dogs have been crazy for the outside lately. Lazlo lays down on the sidewalk, wherever. So I try to take them to the park in the afternoons, or a walk. And Keith takes them off leash to the triangle in the mornings.


Couch Park
The Triangle
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The End.

1 comment:

evangeline said...

i love frames with nothing in them. you just gave me an idea. thanks!