I am almost scared to say this...I have three. All are relatively small and very feminine. A bird of paradise on my right calf, a half armband on my right bicep, and a seahorse on the left side of my chest. All can be covered when need be.
I draw the line at body piercings except the ears. With me with tattoos depends on the woman, size, and subject....
Sea, I was in my 30' when I got my first. Reason was my first born -a girl- came home after a sleep over"
with this horrid Tat on her arm that looked like a dead cocker roach. For a year I tried to find someone that could remove it and finally had to face the fact that the only thing we could do was to have it covered with a professional tattoo.
She finally agreed but I had to get one also, She never though I would fall for her bluff until I walked her into a parlor and realised I was serious about doing anything to get that dead cocker roach off her arm.
It cost $50.00 to get hers covered and $20.00 for me to get a very small, size of a nickel butter fly on my upper arm.
Well you know how it goes, once you get one tat you start checking out the tats on other people, become an art critic and the body placement of the art. Arms, legs, etc. All the time as much as you deny it, the idea of getting another one sort of hangs out in the back of your mind. Fight the urge for years until one day the idea breaks out, comes to the fore front of the mind and on a whim find yourself in a parlor checking out what is displayed or what the price for an original is.
What I have found is that having art put on the body is serious business, This is not anything like going to a hair dresser with a picture of a celebratory and asking for a matching hair style, Hair grows but the skin art goes to the grave with you.
I got my next tat perhaps 8 years later, I was tired of looking at the butterfly just sitting there and the colors were beginning to fade. I decided to have the colors renewed by having my butterfly given a different color.
I hung out at the parlor waiting for a slow time to talk to the artist ---must have driven him nuts----asking questions about colors and cost. The idea of spicing up the tat with somekind of new add on and what that should be.
I would wait until the place was busy, go in and watch the artest " DO " other customers, male or female, watched as they interacted with the artist. Now mind you I went this way through 4-5 different parlors for 6 months. The first I had gotten was fading and I wanted to insure the next one was worth the price and original. Questions as to what kind of ink were they using, was the artist a druggie or drunk, etc. Did they have an up to date license and insurance, what was their track record for infections etc.
Sea I was now 40 years old, wiser then I was when I got black mailed into going in cold to a strange parlor with my daughter. I wanted a professional job and not some just out of jail dude learning the trade. My first was under duress from my rotten kid, this one was at my own desire.
Finally found a parlor with an artist that took and interest in me, would sit down and talk to me about what I wanted and for a under $100.00 job took the time to draw out different scenarios of what he could do for that price. This artist was exactly that, an artist not a technician copying the works of others.
Took us a few meetings to come up with the new colors for the butter fly, and a Double 9 pointed star to place around it, The top of the star is my birth stone colors, then My parents stone colors, and on down to the 4 colors of my children, this left 2 empty and I put in the colors of their fathers. 4 kids, 2 fathers, and all that came from my parents line. I am the only one who knows the symbolism of the stones and the butterfly signifies metamorphosis in life. The 9 pointed star signifies my faith, and all fell neatly into the double star.
Then at the age of 50 I decided to get one last tat, a full arm band keeping all the tats in just one area 4" above the elbow on right arm. Why, why do I now even think of filling in the spaces left above the arm band ???
Symbolism is a human trait, we have the Cross, the Star of David, Half Moon and Star, Buddha pendents, Saint Christopher's Pendents etc. Decoration is one thing, symbolise of who and what we are is a far different thing.
