Talking About Tattoos

My dad had some great tattoos. I always thought they were rather scandalous. At least to me as a young daughter they seemed so.

On one shoulder he sported a tattoo of a Hawaiian woman in a hula skirt. Bare breasted of course. On the other shoulder I believe he had a tattoo of a cowgirl, again; bare breasted.

He enjoyed moving his arms around, trying to make these inked women dance.
Ha ha. Funny, dad.

He was also tattooed on each forearm. I remember one as a heart with a knife through it. I can't remember the other.
(I'm thinking it might have had something to do with his Mom, who died when he was 12 years old)

I so wish I had pictures of his tattoos now, as my father has been deceased for 20 years.

I can't type that sentence without thinking how much I miss him. Alcoholism and all. I still miss him.

On one thigh he had a large tattoo of a dragon.

I must assume that drinking was involved with all his tattoos since I believe they all occurred during his military service in the Philippines. (DO NOT go into a tattoo studio if you’ve been drinking or if you’re under the influence of something. Show your tattoo artist some respect and come sober- nobody likes dealing with drunks. If your breath smells of alcohol you’re not going to get a tattoo- not from anyone reputable, anyway. If you’re wasted, you won’t make a good decision on what to get and you’ll bleed so heavily your tattoo is likely to look like it’s done in pastel colors.)

Well, I've since come to the opinion that "the family that tattoos together stays together."

All kidding aside, I had my first tattoo at about 21 years of age. At Ricky Tattoo Parlor in Alameda, California. I was, mistakenly, told that tattoos don't hurt. Don't kid yourself. It involves needles. It hurts.

My daughter Vanessa followed in my footsteps and was tattooed a few years ago with this lovely image;



My son Casey followed shortly after with this;




It was around 1976 that I had a bird tattooed on my forearm. (I had another tattoo done around 1978, but it's not relevant.) Not being thrilled with the bird tattoo, and finally deciding to own up to my rattlesnake bite experience, and also wanting to honor my dad (who stuck the bite with a knife, sucked the poison and drove me the two hours to the hospital) I had a rattlesnake tattoo done five years ago (2003) which covered the original tattoo of the bird.

I recently decided to have it embellished. I went back to the original artist, Travis, at Inkvision.

As I said, tattoos hurt. To me, it feels like a continual bee sting. I want to slap it away. Constantly. But it won't stop. I have to continually remind myself why I'm there.





Five years of tattooing experience makes a world of difference as these pictures can attest to; look at the before and after pics. (click on pics for a closer look)



I'm thrilled with my recent improvement, even after SEVEN HOURS of being under the tattoo needle. (Oh my!)

(For comparison, the first snake tattoo took Travis THIRTEEN HOURS to complete, with much less detail).

See the drop shadow Travis suggested this time?



Yeah, great idea. He included this towards the end of my session along much of the length of the snake.
To give you an idea though, if someone suggests this, when he was tattooing the drop shadow along the head, I thought, seriously, I was going to have a stroke. It hurt that much worse than the rest of the tattoo.
I don't know why.
I also don't know why I put up with the pain.
All I know is that it's worth it.
At least to me.


My friend Steph is getting her first tattoo this month.

I've been trying to talk Kim into joining our little group, to no avail.
He sees no point to the pain. (silly boy!)
Alas, I doubt he'll ever join us. In fact, he thinks we're nuts.