TATTOO TALK THURSDAY: Stay Spooky

3 October 2018 

Tattoo day! I don't know why its taken me so long to get a Halloween tattoo-oh, wait, I suppose you can count the little vampire bat on my leg or the Nightmare Before Christmas tattoos on my arm or-you all get the picture. But this is the first spooky tattoo that I've gotten in October! (I think, I honestly cannot fucking remember.) 

I saw a similar design on Pinterest and fell in love with it. I loved the spooky candies. The irony of it all is that I don't really like lollipops that much. I sketched out the two happily evil little faces. I wanted them to have a humourous maliciousness to them, just like me. The hardest part was trying to get the bow just right. I must have redrawn that thing like 15 times. I don't know why I couldn't get it straight..hahaha what a coincidence. Anyway, I finally got it in the end. I tried it with one lolli but it just didn't look right. It needed two since, in reality, people use two heads...if you know what I mean. The text was tricky too. I didn't know what font I wanted. In the space that I wanted it, there is already text there so I didn't want them all to blend. Christ, I have a lot of words on me. Probably because I'm a writer; occupational hazard.  I figured I could play with the font and have the tattooist through in his two pence on the matter.  After I decided that I didn't want lettering I felt free. The candy was enough, but when I got to the shop, the tattooist added a creepy little lettering to it and I wanted it again. He stuck it right between the two existing tattoos like it was no problem. I checked out the stencil and gave him the nod right away. I hopped up on the body table and got into perfect position for Alex. He was a friendly bloke around my age. I've had a few artists, well more than a few, who weren't friendly, but we got on straight away. We talked about travel, cultural differences and tattoos. It was a lovely hour really. It was nice to have someone to converse with whilst getting tattooed. Some people just don't have the friendliness and even he mentioned some people don't like a friendly artist. I prefer them. It makes me want to come back to a shop. If I'm going to spend my hard earned money on something, especially something as personal and intimate (in a manner of personal space) as a tattoo, then I want to feel relaxed. I want to feel welcome in a place. Some shops don't have that. And the coldness of the artist is a major turn off and that's largely the reason I don't return to other shops. 

I was thinking about basic Halloween colours, or just black and grey but when I got on the table, I told him he could do whatever he wanted; He could see it better than I could. He did most of the work with a single needle. I couldn't be happier with the colour choices. He added a bit of pale purple in between the back and grey in the bow, which once it heals it will really pop. He worked in yellow and green shades in the mouths of the pumpkin heads to give a haunted glow effect to them, it blends so well with the black shading. The orange was a nice rich tone which complimented my paleness and the other colours in the piece perfectly. It looks so natural between the work that wraps around my upper thigh. He was careful to work on the scar tissue there and was quick to point out that he might have a difficult time when he started tattooing me. Some artists don't mention that; I informed him that I knew the risk and that I still wanted to proceed with it. So many people think that tattoos are magic over scar tissue. They can be, but healing, even the tattooing process changes when you're dealing with scars. Thankfully that spot has been clean since, June, I believe so it was okay. You're technically supposed to wait a little longer than that, but they're pale and the majority of the scars are very shallow. 

The finished product! 

I love where it sits, the colours, how it will heal and blend in with the small amount of orange on the ice-cream truck. I wanted to get something cute and light-hearted. I didn't want another bad memory on me. I wanted to have something that symbolises happier times and good things. I always have loved Halloween; I have a lot of fond memories of the holiday. It's a rare thing for me to be able to look back on something and smile, so I'm going to run with it.

I dunno, but maybe I'm getting old. All I want to do is lie in a boat with a few drinks out on a lake in the mid-autumn and relax. Just let nature wash over me. Am I the only one who's thinking about things like this? I do have time this upcoming week. After today, I have a week off. The wonders of nature.