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hizgeorgiapeach -> RE: Stupid or just Seriously masochistic? (8/17/2008 6:11:28 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: XaviersXian
(snip)... they are reminders of a meaningful journey or a wonderful time in my life. Why regret something like that?.
Definately Xian. I haven't got any Flash - though a couple of the pieces I've got have used elements that include some Flash simply to save the artist time. All of them have personal meaning to me, all of them remind me of something Specific. I wouldn't allow someone else to design a piece for me, or get marked specifically at someone else's request. It's simply not something that I'm willing to do. I won't get pierced at someone else's insistance either. Not being a submissive, I consider it strictly my choice - whether, when, and where.
Mine aren't small, Smith. I had a "small" piece originally on this particular arm - the work done last night actually incorporates the pre-existing work as part of the design, rather than covering it up. The small pieces don't hurt to get done. I didn't feel any pain at all when I got the original piece on that arm, or even when I had the outline work done for the larger piece a few months ago. The first hour - heck, almost the first two - it wasn't painful getting the work last night. After 3 hours in the chair though, and several layers of color added over the same areas again and again, the sheer amount of trauma to a limited portion of the body gets painful. The large piece on my forearm on the same side took 6 hours from start to finish, and part of it is on the inside of the arm (which is significantly more sensative.) That one wasn't bad when we Started it, but when we finished the color up on the inner elbow area it was over a bit of scar tissue, and That was Excruciatingly painful.
I've asked myself the whole "what will I think of it all when I'm 60 or 80?" question. It's something that I considered very carefully before getting the first piece done 4 years ago. That got asked along with the "is this Rebellion or something else?" When I was at an age to be Rebellious about things, I allowed someone else's wishes and preferences to dictate whether I would or wouldn't get ink. I'm way past the age or inclination to rebel against most things (except perhaps governmental excesses and interference lol) so that hasn't been a factor for me. I do, however, see it as an outward indication of my individuality to a certain extent. Not completely, since it's becoming more and more mainstream rather than the fringe area that it was while I was growing up.
My younger spawn's father tried to use my appreciation and liking of good tattoo art as one of his sticking points the last time we had a custody battle. I didn't have any ink at the time although he knew I wanted some. I did, however, have one of those stick on fake tats that comes off with soap and water when we went to court. (I'd gotten it as a joke between me and a friend of mine, and had put it on my arm when the two of us went out drinking the night before court lol) He tried claiming that I was teaching our spawn "bad morals" and "rebellion" - and was Not pleased with my answer when I was asked what *I felt it was "teaching" in the way of values - freedom of expression, appreciation for art, acceptance of individuality, acceptance of the body and whatever differences there may be between different bodies, tolerance of others' preferences, respect for others' freedom of speech and individuality. The judge liked my answers though, even if the sperm donor felt outraged by them.
The skin is the largest organ of the human body, so taking good care of it makes sense regardless of whether you do or don't have ink to consider. There are ways to protect the color from fading - the primary one being avoiding Excessive sun exposure. I was in the habit of avoiding excessive UV and taking really good care of my skin long before I got the first of my tats, so there hasn't been a change in routine or unnecessarily high maintainance to take care of the ink specifically. I've changed the products that I use since I got the first one, but that's because I make my Own these days as part of my business. I even make my own tattoo aftercare balm that's 100% natural. The guys at the shop where I have my work done have been impressed with how well it's worked for me in personal use, and have started asking about carrying it for sale as a locally made alternative to the products that are available on the national market. I've got an appointment later this week to go in and talk to them further about the potential. Since it's one of the 2 largest and longest running shops in this area, with a proportionately large amount of the business, it's something that I'm definately keen to look into businesswise.
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