Hello Dear Readers!
This last week was kind of a nutty one. You see, Friday my tattoo artist posted that he and his fellow shop owner wanted to do a canned food drive for free tattoos. Um, who the heck doesn’t want in on that?? I even took off time from my day job so we could make a day of it, and I’m so glad I did!
We got to the shop a little before 2pm, later than we wanted to be there, but probably at the perfect time. Sure, there was a line of people in front of us, but there was nowhere near the number of people who were there later!
To be honest, I wasn’t totally sure what I would get. I’m between sessions on a foot tattoo that’s incomplete, so adding another to the healing mix isn’t exactly ideal, but whatever. It’s a tattoo for a fun, free gig. And I have a long list of things I’d like tattooed–someday. Why not today??
I’ve always wanted a skull and crossbones. No idea why, except I like the hardcore imagery of it. But I didn’t want a straight up, typical skull and femurs. I wanted something different. I’d seen a design some time ago I liked, but I never want to copy tattoos. Especially when the ones I go to are so talented.
I told my artist I wanted a skull and knitting needles.
Yup. You read that right. A skull and knitting needles.
I took up knitting several years ago because one of my roller derby friends gave me a knitting book full of derby inspired patterns. I’d never knitted a day in my life, but I figured–why not? It’s turned out to be one of the better activities I’ve taken up. For one, I can make all sorts of neat stuff for myself and friends. But it also keeps my hands busy while I’m watching TV or movies at home. I have this whole issue with sitting still–I don’t do it well. So knitting has become a go-to activity to help me just chill out and enjoy relaxing.
As far as tattoos go, this wasn’t a super painful one. The far left side of the design, toward my inner thigh, was uncomfortable, but not anywhere near as bad as either my wrist or foot tattoo. Both of those rate as some of the more painful experiences of my life. And I’m not even done with my foot yet!!
One funny thing was when the artist brought the initial design out to show me–the knitting needles were actually shaped like huge, sewing needles. I told him it looked great, but the needles were all wrong, so we had to go online and look at some needles to decide how to make them look in the tattoo.
I decided to go with a traditional Americana/Sailor Jerry style for the tattoo. These designs are often more black and gray, with color limited to red, green and yellow. Blue was a color added to the mix later, so I figured it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to make the yarn blue–my favorite color.
I’m thrilled with the design, and the artists brought in a huge amount of canned food. So all in all, fantastic day!
