"The revelation is intoxicating..."
So much to say. So much to think about. So much to smile about :)
I'm really hyped up about my upcoming tattoo. The sketch is here:
I'll update pics of the ink once it's completed.
In preparation for the new inking I've been addicted to the book "Chick Ink" (I mentioned it a few entries back). Most of the stories are good, but one just hit me right between the eyes when she was describing what it's like to get tattooed...
"He steps on a pedal and the tattoo machine begins to emit a stern, familiar hum. I love this sound. It reminds me of a fetal heartbeat on an ultrasound scanner, like the moment where what you love meets what you see... I watch him tilt his hand, touch the needle to my body, and begin to stitch black pigment deep into the dermal cells of my skin. I'm so startled by the pain, I actually gasp... I'm not sure if I want to look, but I do anyway.
Watching him draw my blood infuses the pain with a new, weird kind of intimacy, and I realize I actually prefer it this way... I realize that much of what makes pain so painful is just the surprise and the fear that accompany it. If you walk into a plate-glass door that you didn't know was there, you're going to cry as much from being startled as you will for your wounds. But make the pain voluntary, seek it out and give it a purpose, and you're somehow better armed against the next black eye or broken heart that life throws at you.
The revelation is intoxicating..."
That's the most accurate account of tattooed pain I have ever read. Each of my tattoos hurt. One of them even made me cry. Each one represents a point in my life, an event I got through or a milestone I reached. The imagery has meaning. The date I got it has meaning. I'm addicted to them. I think the pain is just something I have survived; a rite of passage. Just like each of the events the tattoos represent. And just like she said, "The revelation is intoxicating"
I'm really hyped up about my upcoming tattoo. The sketch is here:
I'll update pics of the ink once it's completed.
In preparation for the new inking I've been addicted to the book "Chick Ink" (I mentioned it a few entries back). Most of the stories are good, but one just hit me right between the eyes when she was describing what it's like to get tattooed...
"He steps on a pedal and the tattoo machine begins to emit a stern, familiar hum. I love this sound. It reminds me of a fetal heartbeat on an ultrasound scanner, like the moment where what you love meets what you see... I watch him tilt his hand, touch the needle to my body, and begin to stitch black pigment deep into the dermal cells of my skin. I'm so startled by the pain, I actually gasp... I'm not sure if I want to look, but I do anyway.
Watching him draw my blood infuses the pain with a new, weird kind of intimacy, and I realize I actually prefer it this way... I realize that much of what makes pain so painful is just the surprise and the fear that accompany it. If you walk into a plate-glass door that you didn't know was there, you're going to cry as much from being startled as you will for your wounds. But make the pain voluntary, seek it out and give it a purpose, and you're somehow better armed against the next black eye or broken heart that life throws at you.
The revelation is intoxicating..."
That's the most accurate account of tattooed pain I have ever read. Each of my tattoos hurt. One of them even made me cry. Each one represents a point in my life, an event I got through or a milestone I reached. The imagery has meaning. The date I got it has meaning. I'm addicted to them. I think the pain is just something I have survived; a rite of passage. Just like each of the events the tattoos represent. And just like she said, "The revelation is intoxicating"