29 May, 2007
This is a chopstickup!

This weekend was a blast! My lady Genevieve came into town and we went on a roadtrip, ate delicious food and listened to many cheesy pop and hip hop songs. I got to drive her fancy Audi automobile around, people thought I was seriously cool.

We headed down to Winston-Salem to get my tattoo finished up. See how stoked I am. I’m really happy with it though, it needs to hurry up and heal. I was really freaked out about this session because the last time I went it was very hurty and miserable and I was knocked out for the entire weekend afterward, but this time was really a breeze. I promised myself I wouldn’t tense up and I think it REALLY helped, plus Genevieve is the ultimate person to take with you when you get tattooed, she is good at keeping your mind off things!

On the way back we ate at Boba House in Greensboro and it was seeemply delicious.

  

Sunday we hit up the beach before she rolled out of town and were assaulted by the angry suntan lotion monster.

The weather was awesome and I had such a good time with ma lady. Yay! In other news my air conditioner broke on Saturday and it has been hotter than hades all weekend long. Luckily it got fixed about midnight last night. Ugh! Relief!

06 November, 2006
Almost done!

Well Saturday I went and got tattooed again. 3 more hours under my belt. I’m 2/3 of the way done now. All the shading is done, and most of the color. Next time we just have some background, the keys, the banner and the roses. Should be about 2 more hours. I know ya’ll want to see pictures, but I decided not to post any til it’s finished and healed. So you have to wait.

Everyone who said getting shaded/colored was easier than getting outlined, you’re right but then again you’re liars. The pain is a little less, but it’s much more surface area so it was pretty miserable. I cried like three times. I’m a big baby. I hate getting tattooed, ugh.

After I was done, Jimmy and I drove up to Roanoke to visit his family. The fall colors are just beautiful up there. This is right outside his parents’ front door.

His family had a big dinner when we got there and we got to visit with everyone. His little cousin is a trip and a half.

Yesterday we went to the Peaks of Otter with Jimmy’s dad & his girlfriend. I thought we were gonna hike up but we ended up just shivering by the lake and went to eat at the Lodge.

Oh yeah, and Jimmy walked on water.

On the way back to drop off his dad, we stopped at an apple orchard store and Jimmy bought me a bunch of apples (soooo good!), apple butter, pinto beans, yellow eyed peas and fresh tomatoes. He also bought an apple pie, which is sitting in my fridge calling my name. I’m gonna try to not eat the entire thing tonight while he’s at work haha.

I miss my dog! I am picking her up this afternoon from mom’s.

25 September, 2006
Well it’s on me.

Yes, I did get tattooed this weekend. No, I don’t have any pictures of it yet. This is the most you get. Don’t I look stoked? Haha not.

I’ll have some pics up soon enough.

It looks really great. It hurt really bad. I hear that coloring & shading is easier and I really hope so, because the dull letter opener being dug in and dragged across my skin feeling? Not so hot.

The weekend was pretty fun overall. Friday afternoon I made an appointment for a massage because my back had been bothering me for a week, to the point of where it hurt when I breathed. Carmen beat the crap out of me, but the pain is gone now, I’m really glad I went. Then I met Steph at my house. We picked up Jimmy and went to Doumars, then we lit fireworks and sparklers off at his beach.

We ended up watching a movie at his house, then went home to get beauty rest. We left around 10 and headed down to Winston-Salem. It took just under 5 hours to get there. After some design revisions, I got tattooed. I didn’t cry but I wanted to at some of the music that was playing in the shop. The place was really busy too, a ton of people kept coming in and just spontaneously picking stuff off the wall to get tattooed on them. Some were letting the price of the tattoo determine what they got. Nice!

We had some time left for shading but I couldn’t take anymore after the outline was done, so we got some pizza and got back on the road. The drive back was crappy. I was pretty tired yesterday, just went to church, hung around my mom’s, helped her with some website stuff and crashed early last night after trying to watch JAWS with Jimmy.

I’ll try to get some pictures tonight maybe.

11 September, 2006
Scheduled!

Next Saturday, September 23, I’m going to Inkwell in Winston Salem, NC, for the first sitting for my chestpiece! I’m getting tattooed by Ashley Love and Steph is coming down to visit and go with me! Second session will be October 7th, Jimmy will probably go with me to that one and might get some ink himself.

I’m so excited!

05 July, 2006
Check these out.

After much deliberation and many emails, I have decided on an artist for my chestpiece. Her name is Ashley Love and she lives and works in Winston-Salem, NC. Here is some of her work. Her use of color makes my head swim. More of her work can be found at her tattoo livejournal.

I can’t get over the colors on those two sugar skulls. Agh, the blue-grays and that olive green with pink! Brilliant. I can’t wait to see what she draws for me.

29 June, 2006
Planning

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and planning lately regarding tattoos. I think I’m finally ready to begin some work.

My first piece is going to be a fairly large traditional-style chest piece. I have scarring from surgery that I had five years ago and because of that I never wear shirts that show cleavage at all, despite my extremely gorgeous boobies. I have the option of getting ANOTHER surgery to fix the scars and make them smaller, but I don’t want to do that. New scars are better than old scars? Nah.

I’m a big fan of the idea of reclaiming parts of your body that you dislike by getting them tattooed. I hate my knees, I always have since I can remember (I have dark pigment on my knees so it always looks like they are dirty), and I have wanted to get them tattooed for a long time (traditional flowers). I also want to get my armpits tattooed (hate those too). I have friends who have gotten tattoos to help accept their body as it changed during the process of recovering from an eating disorder, I know of someone who was paralyzed from the waist down at a young age and decided to get tattooed on her feet to help her accept her new condition.

Anyway I’m ready to do it. I’ve been talking to Fred Pinckard at Salvation Gallery in Richmond, who has covered scars on a guy I know. Next time I’m in Richmond we’re going to meet and talk about getting this done. I’m still forming ideas about it but I know I want a traditional lock/key combo with wings reaching out toward my shoulders, and probably a banner with some sort of wording about being drug free. I don’t know what I want it to say yet but I don’t want it to scream STRAIGHT EDGE TIL DEATH or be cheesy. I still have a lot of thinking to do.

Anyway, here’s the start of a new category. Wish me luck.