Fashionably Inked: Tattoo Tuesday

I promise to take a break for a bit from acquiring more ink for I do not wish to suddenly look like this unfortunate soul….EVER! (Be very careful in following that link!)


That, and Christmas is coming up and I don’t believe our families will appreciate the viewing pleasure of our tattoos as proper gifts…time to start spending money elsewhere.

Having said that, I really really really wanted to clean up my bird tattoo as well as expand on it a bit. It had a few messy lines, and while they were difficult for anyone else to see, they offended my perfectionist eye daily.

I have no intention of the bird morphing into a huge arm piece, but the original design’s simplicity irked me. My other two are more complex, and while simplistic tattoos can be great, this one just wasn’t doing it for me.

The bird is the first, and often only, tattoo people see. If I were an individual less committed to permanent body art, the original design could have been perfect. But I’m no mamby pamby sorority girl, who got drunk one night and thought it would be fun to have cute little matching tats with one of her friends. I’d like to believe that my thought process is much more profound, and in the end, it felt as if the bird only partially expressed my personal aesthetic. (I know many girls with one small tattoo, and they look great because it’s what they want. This was a personal irritation not meant to be projected onto anyone else.)

I have always had an affinity for Victorian frames and birdcages, and here was my opportunity to work in such elements. Derek at Poking You worked tirelessly to make a design flow that B and I had previously created, which resulted in:

Taking a clear picture at this angle proved quite difficult. Here's the best I could produce.

I just had this done last Thursday so the color is still developing as it heals, but overall I'm thrilled with it. I knew that I didn't want to go further down on my forearm for fear of not being able to cover it quite as easily. Therefore, it does extend a bit into the crease of my elbow. Aesthetically, that doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I kind of love the irregular placement. What did bother me was....YEEEOUCH!!! The top part of the frame was surprisingly painful. Obviously, nothing I couldn't handle, but I definitely had to muscle through it.
 
It feels much more like "me" now, and therefore, I am pleased.