Tattoo Talk Thursday: The Giving Tree

I had a different Tattoo Talk Thursday planned for today but since only two people out of the dozen or so that I messaged got back to me, I couldn't do it. If I don't get all the replies that I need then I probably won't be able to do the blog at all. I'll keep you guys updated on that as that unfolds.

This one's one from the newer archives! 3 years ago I was living in LA and was a frequent visitor to High Voltage Tattoo. I loved Dennis's work from the first moment I saw it. He works in Detriot mainly now if I remember correctly, either way, I will link his Insta below so you can check out his other works and book appointments with him.  I love literary tattoos, I have one for Where the Wild Things Are, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Harry Potter and, you guessed it, The Giving Tree.

 I've always been drawn to the story. It's meant different things to me at different parts of my life. When I was younger I saw the story differently than I do now as an adult. When I was a child I saw the story as a beautiful friendship; a devotion between two souls, I was going to say people but the tree isn't really a person, though it possesses human qualities. A self-less relationship. A relationship where one is loved unconditionally. Then I woke up. I didn't see it before. Now I look at the story in a different way; things that I've experienced in my life have jaded the way I once looked at an innocent story. I now look at it as a story of abuse. The poor tree, wanting desperately to be loved, putting herself out there, only to be met with abuse. I suppose having it happen to myself time and time again because of this need to try and fit in, try to have something I'm not supposed to have, that I brought it upon myself. I wanted a tattoo, not just because I loved the story, but because I still love the story. I wanted to get the image of the boy and the tree cut down into a stump as she was at the end of the book so that I would always be reminded of the sacrifices I made for those who didn't deserve them; didn't deserve me. 

   

I didn't tell Dennis all this when I went in to get the tattoo. All I said I was that I'd love to get a tattoo from a childhood book I loved. I want to get the little boy from The Giving Tree in colour and the tree in the black and white in the story.  He said it was simple enough and he could do it up in no time at all. He had me select which image of the boy and the tree that I wanted and he carefully stencilled them below my Egyptian tattoo. It was then for the first time, that I realised just how much of my skin was covered in memories; in tragedy. I hadn't really thought about it before, but it was then when Dennis was placing the stencils on my left arm that I realised how much I'd been carrying with me in my skin. And I realise it now as I type this all out. I see all of the emptiness, loneliness and sorrow etched into my skin. I don't need to hold onto all these things but I do, God I do. And I don't know why. They serve no purpose. Sure I've learned from them, but did I really need to mark myself with reminders? Why did I think it was such a great idea at the time? Maybe they will come to help me in different ways, I don't know. I have so many memories in my skin and inside my mind that it feels like I've lived a thousand different lifetimes, a thousand different identities. In many ways, I have. (Haven't we all?) 

He started with the tree, He didn't ask me why I was getting this, we just chatted about tattooing, different styles, what I'd seen in in my travels. It was one of the rare times that I actually felt welcome in a tattoo shop. Dennis has a way of really relaxing you when he works; he's not imposing and he's extremely friendly. He quickly, yet carefully outlined and added a small bit of shading on the inner part of the stump with a single needle. I was so happy he managed to get the tiny writing on the inside of the stump. He did warn me that it could blur or blow out with age, but I really wasn't worried. Still not worried either. Its simple lettering expresses more than the entire tattoo; it signifies what the relationship is, what it was and what it could be perceived as by the outside world. Only the two people inside it know for sure; just as with anything. It's a beautiful notion. It's also isolating. Maybe I overthink things.

Once he'd completed the tree portion of the tattoo, he moved onto the little boy. In some respects, I saw myself as that little child. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was me identifying with my own lust and greed. I watched as he tattooed the little creature into my skin and it left me wondering about childhood, thinking about what I'd grown from. It feels like it took me forever to become an adult, yet time is racing by now; but by the same token, it feels as I've been an adult for decades. Time, you are a fickle thing and I'm not even sure it really exists. "Do you want him in colour?" His question cuts through my thoughts. "I'm thinking colour. I'd like to do the same colours in the book if possible." He rolled back on his seat and looked through his inks. "Scarlet and forest green work for you?" I take a look at the inks. "They're perfect." He pours the ink into the caps, fills the reservoir of the machine and starts laying down the colour. His tecnnique is soft and precisie. There are few artists who have the touch he does. It doesn't take him long to shade in the tattoo. I couldn't be happier with it. "It looks just like the picture!" I wasn't sure that the colours would match exactly but they do when he and I do a side by side comparison.

It's been 4 years and the colours are still as vibrant as the day he did the tattoo. I tried to book with him again before he left for Michigan, but sadly, it didn't happen as he cancelled the appointment because he was sick, then my mate almost died so it never happened. I'm hoping that one day I'll be able to get some other work done by Dennis. He did the amazing script that wraps the upper part of my leg, right below the knee. He didn't even have to take a tracing. He eyeballed the area and sketched out a rough draft of the lyrics I wanted. We worked right off that, so if you're looking for script, head over to Dennis. He's a master of it.

Have Tattoo Talk Thursday suggestions or ideas? Let me know!
Email: daninterviews@gmail.com

CONTACT DENNIS:
https://www.instagram.com/dhalbritter/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/Eternal-Tattoos-Livonia-132322956028/
https://www.eternaltattoos.com/artists-livonia
https://lviewer.com/dhalbritter?page=1039453935245415105_1353027&loadCount=1