Tattoos

I love tattoos, and there's no way around that.

I have five now;

1 and 2. Black stars on my wrist with "Radio Radio, When I got the music I got a place to go" split between my wrists, written with fun script. I got the stars on my 18th birthday. I skipped out early on my Senior picnic at school and left with Tina and Brandon to go to the tattoo shop. Brandon was in the trunk of my car because (there was another girl I was kinda friends with in the backseat, she asked me to take her to work and I agreed) we were convinced the security guard would turn us in for skipping the picnic because it was considered a school day.


Well, he didn't care. And Brandon got a brushburn on his elbow. He jumped out of my trunk in the Kennywood parking lot, getting us a couple strange looks from people.And so we went to the shop. Tina paid for the tattoo as a present for my birthday. I went back like a year-ish later and got the lyrics put by the stars. They're the lyrics to my favorite Rancid song, "Radio."

It was done by Matt at Body Shop tattoo in Pittsburgh, though their shop was in Dravosburgh when I got mine done. He's awesome. The stars were $50 and the lettering was $100.3. Dagger tattoo on the side of my left calf. I got it because my pap was in the navy during WWII and got a dagger tattooed on his arm while he was stationed in Maryland. I decided to go get one because he's always been a big part of my life, and his alzheimer's and other health issues were becoming apparent around the time I got the tattoo. The tattoo's gorgeous. It's really colorful and has flowers and patterns running through it. It doesn't look like his at all, but I think that speaks to the way I've taken what him and my gram had raised me with and made it my own.

The ink was done by Doug at In The Blood in South Side. I don't think he's there anymore, but the ex-singer of The Last Hope owns the shop. It was a bit of a fiasco. The day I was supposed to get my tattoo, the shop was robbed and a lot of their stuff was either stolen or destroyed. I waited a few months to get the tattoo, but it was worth it. I think I paid around $250 for it.

While my uncle was in Ireland, he also got a dagger tattoo for my pap. Mine's a lot bigger, lol.
4. Rosie the Riveter on the back of my left calf. I am so damn proud of this tattoo. It's perfect. I had wanted it for a long time, and after seeing Tina get a gorgeous pin-up girl tattoo on her back from Matt at Body Shop, I was confident that he'd be up to the challenge. He was. It took two sessions and nine hours for Rosie to be done. I got it because I had always loved that picture, and the "Rosie" movement was one of the defining moments of feminism. After that, a lot of women were no longer happy being housewives. After the 50's cookie-cutter lie, people were fed up with having to be the nuclear family. And so Rosie is on my leg. I get a lot of people asking me questions about it. I think I paid about $300 for it.
5. A half-assed Jack Skellington head behind my right ear. I love Nightmare Before Christmas. I got it at a $20 tattoo party at a bar with some friends. It's not done very well, the color's not consistent the whole way through, but I love it. I think it's bad quality gives it some character it would lack otherwise. Right after I got my tattoo, the bouncers at the bar kicked us out because 3/4 of us were under 21, thought it didn't say anywhere on the flier that you had to be over 21 to go to the tattoo party. Oh well. It was fun.



These are all great, but now I have a problem. I am addicted. I love seeing anything I want becoming material on my skin. The pain and the after-tattoo itchiness sucks, no doubt, but the payoff is awesome.

I'm getting the symbol of the Deathly Hallows tattooed on my foot next week, and so is Tina. We've been wanting to get a tattoo together, and there's nothing more "us" than a Harry Potter tattoo. First our idea was to get "muggle" tattooed on our feet, but it changed to the symbol after we reread book 7 and saw the movie. I'm excited. Here's the symbol:

I'm having a dilemma when it comes to the rest of the tattoos I one day want to have. Only a couple are set in stone. I'm getting a portrait of my grandma when she was working as a kitchen girl at a factory. She's gorgeous. It'll be black and white, maybe with red lipstick, on the same leg as Rosie and the dagger tattoo. But I don't have the money for that right now. I also want the girl from Night of the Living Dead tattooed on me. I love horror movies, zombies in particular. She's the least grotesque zombie I can think of, and she's in the film that launched Romero's career. Here she is:




My mom would probably kill me if I got my favorite zombie, Bub from Day of the Dead, tattooed on me. This is Bub:




I think I'm going to get something Ireland-related, probably something like the framed clovers and embroidered "forget me not" that belonged to my grandma on that side of the family. It'd be a cool ankle tattoo. Idk, I never had the same kind of connection with them as I had to my mom's side. I also think I want something Cherokee related because I'm a little Cherokee from that side of the family and I feel pretty close to that time in history.

I'd love to get some Sailor Jerry type-stuff, but I'm having a hard time getting something just because I think it looks cool. I don't really have a connection with it, other than that I like it a lot. I want sparrows and a sugar skull, but I have to find some kind of connection.

I also want tattoos relating to books, but I don't want to get words. I wish I could get the point across with a picture. The Fountainhead, 1984 and Cat's Cradle are the books I'd want in some form on my body. Maybe some Chuck Palahniuk too, and possibly one of the illustrations from The Little Prince.