She lives on my skin
So, today was the tattoo day. I grabbed ofangoriousone/Teresa and mondegreen/Robyn and hauled them over to No Regrets Tattoos. Have mentioned thats the name of my tattoo shop? No? well, thats what it's called. Anyway, so we get over there and Mitch has the latest draft which needed two changes. 1)she needed to look like she was smiling a little more and 2)she needed to have less angry eyes. So Mitch was like "Oh, kay." and I ran to get something to drink that had calories in it cause I hadnt had food all day and I didnt want to faint or whatever. Anyway, we get back five minutes later, and he's got the changes and she's, oh, you guys, she came so far from the slightly-anime looking original. If you click Mitch's name you can see some of the other work he's done but I'd just like to remind you quickly of where we started:
With the first draft in all her awesome. But she was a bit too angry and a bit too hunched down and her hair was a bit too manga-esque.
So today, I came in and aside from the few details, which are corrected in this version, she looked like this.
*waves hands erratically* SHE IS SO MUCH BETTER. The line of her stomach is less cartoon hottie and more like a real person. Her hair is more like mine ACTUALLY is than in the first draft - wavey instead of spikey. She's sitting up right and she's kind of smirking. She's fabulous. You will notice, however? There is no shading on her. I never saw ANY shading intimated in either sketch beyond the bits of wood grain you see there.
So, Mitch is like "Did you bring a jacket you can maybe wear inside out so you can take off your shirt?" and no, no I didnt. I thought ahead and wore a black bra because no fucking way am I gonna add discomfort to the situation by wearing a shirt backwards. Besides it needs to be lined up in respect to bras/spaghetti strap shirts. So he does voodoo with transfer paper and puts the image you see above directly onto my skin. I sit down in this...red barber-esque chair with no arms, facing away from Mitch and facing a counter basically. Teresa and Robin are on my left.
Have you gotten a tattoo? If the answer is yes then you know that crazy feeling of the needle gun. Its nuts! It ranges from OMGTHISHURTSSOFUCKINGBADPLEASESTOP to mmmmmnice. Very weird how fast I went from feeling awful to amazing and back again. The endorphins definitely kicked in hard. I have no idea how long it took to do the outline but that was the easy part. There was a break and then we came back to do the shading.
The shading hurt considerably more and Teresa and Robyn both had to talk to me to keep me distracted and Mitch joined in too (because on top of being cute and fucking talent is also a genuinely interesting to talk to).They were awesome at and I love them.
So, the shading starts to get really freaking painful. Around that time two other guys drifted in who either worked their or were friends with all the artists. I have no idea who they were but one was black and in a nondescript t-shirt and the other guy was white with a shirt that said "I ♥ Lesbians". Really. Lesbian Shirt Guy turned out to be pretty cool really and interesting and knew a lot about movies and was into Irving Walsh and was like "What was that series of short stories?" Um, that would be 3 Tales of Chemical Romance ;). But him and Nondescript Shirt Guy were cool and they thought my puppet was awesome so they could stay. It helped because the pain started to get bad during the shading processes and by the time she's done being shaded, I'm kind of exhausted and rung out. Every time he wiped it down with soap it would hurt and feel intensely good at the same time. But I manage to stumble over to the mirror and get pictures! (Teresa totally helped - sorry they're crappy, they're done with my camera phone).
and to see how big the tattoo is (bigger than I was expecting)
*flails* I was stunned. None of that shading was in the original sketch. What he did with her hair, the wood of her arms and legs, the metal of the SCISSORS, oh my god. I was flabbergasted but how beautiful it looked like this, with just shading unfinished. I thought she looked so good that there was a quick but pretty intense conversation with my girls about maybe just leaving her like that. But I decided that she needed to be in color.
There was a bit of talk about how to do her hair and then we started the color. Oh my god. That shit hurt ridiculously bad. Everything was raw and exposed by that point and lord it hurt. There was whimpering and moaning and trying and failing not to move and many "Oh my gods" over and over. Lesbian Shirt Guy goes 'Think happy thoughts" and i have to get Mitch to stop because suddenly I've got Headfirst for Halos in my head and am cracking and am, in general, a mess. Teresa, who really should work in crisis management, goes "Lets play the movie game" which is like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon only not. That helped as did most talking during that part.
When we stopped again I was fucking wrecked because between the pain, the endorphins, the stress, the lights - i was a sweat mess that was literally shaking. Lesbian Shirt Guy got me water and I walked around a little and went and checked her out. Her shirt wasn't any color at all and the wood wasn't...wood colored enough(which Mitch wanted me to check before we called it a day). She looked unfinished, partially because I forgot to tell Mitch I wanted her shirt in color. So like any good junkie I went back to get it done at which point I finally understood ink addiction. You know it hurts but you need it and you can't stop yourself. It was ...I have no idea how long after that but a pretty good while but that was the last leg and it hurt the very most because I was raw and exposed nerve endings by that point.
The total time to get her done was 2 1/2 hours and fuck me it really hurt. But this is the end result.
She's everything I hoped for and more. There are so many things I wasnt expecting, like the fall of her hair, or the lenses in the glasses or the way there's stress marks in the wood in the joints of her left elbow and wrist or how powerful the scissors look. But it all came together to be better than I'd hoped.
And it achieved its purpose already because the subject of winter break came up while I was getting tattooed talking about what we're doing over the break. I started talking about how I wasnt sure if I was going to see my dad and the guilt of not versus the stress and damage of going and Teresa holds up her hand and makes a scissor motion with her middle and index finger at which point I had moment of crystal clarity that this was the whole point of the tattoo. I cut my fucking strings dammnit. I dont have to do this. Not anymore. Not ever fucking again. That tattoo is the me I'm going to be.
Fuck the Blue Fairy. I'm making myself a real girl.
With the first draft in all her awesome. But she was a bit too angry and a bit too hunched down and her hair was a bit too manga-esque.
So today, I came in and aside from the few details, which are corrected in this version, she looked like this.
*waves hands erratically* SHE IS SO MUCH BETTER. The line of her stomach is less cartoon hottie and more like a real person. Her hair is more like mine ACTUALLY is than in the first draft - wavey instead of spikey. She's sitting up right and she's kind of smirking. She's fabulous. You will notice, however? There is no shading on her. I never saw ANY shading intimated in either sketch beyond the bits of wood grain you see there.
So, Mitch is like "Did you bring a jacket you can maybe wear inside out so you can take off your shirt?" and no, no I didnt. I thought ahead and wore a black bra because no fucking way am I gonna add discomfort to the situation by wearing a shirt backwards. Besides it needs to be lined up in respect to bras/spaghetti strap shirts. So he does voodoo with transfer paper and puts the image you see above directly onto my skin. I sit down in this...red barber-esque chair with no arms, facing away from Mitch and facing a counter basically. Teresa and Robin are on my left.
Have you gotten a tattoo? If the answer is yes then you know that crazy feeling of the needle gun. Its nuts! It ranges from OMGTHISHURTSSOFUCKINGBADPLEASESTOP to mmmmmnice. Very weird how fast I went from feeling awful to amazing and back again. The endorphins definitely kicked in hard. I have no idea how long it took to do the outline but that was the easy part. There was a break and then we came back to do the shading.
The shading hurt considerably more and Teresa and Robyn both had to talk to me to keep me distracted and Mitch joined in too (because on top of being cute and fucking talent is also a genuinely interesting to talk to).They were awesome at and I love them.
So, the shading starts to get really freaking painful. Around that time two other guys drifted in who either worked their or were friends with all the artists. I have no idea who they were but one was black and in a nondescript t-shirt and the other guy was white with a shirt that said "I ♥ Lesbians". Really. Lesbian Shirt Guy turned out to be pretty cool really and interesting and knew a lot about movies and was into Irving Walsh and was like "What was that series of short stories?" Um, that would be 3 Tales of Chemical Romance ;). But him and Nondescript Shirt Guy were cool and they thought my puppet was awesome so they could stay. It helped because the pain started to get bad during the shading processes and by the time she's done being shaded, I'm kind of exhausted and rung out. Every time he wiped it down with soap it would hurt and feel intensely good at the same time. But I manage to stumble over to the mirror and get pictures! (Teresa totally helped - sorry they're crappy, they're done with my camera phone).
and to see how big the tattoo is (bigger than I was expecting)
*flails* I was stunned. None of that shading was in the original sketch. What he did with her hair, the wood of her arms and legs, the metal of the SCISSORS, oh my god. I was flabbergasted but how beautiful it looked like this, with just shading unfinished. I thought she looked so good that there was a quick but pretty intense conversation with my girls about maybe just leaving her like that. But I decided that she needed to be in color.
There was a bit of talk about how to do her hair and then we started the color. Oh my god. That shit hurt ridiculously bad. Everything was raw and exposed by that point and lord it hurt. There was whimpering and moaning and trying and failing not to move and many "Oh my gods" over and over. Lesbian Shirt Guy goes 'Think happy thoughts" and i have to get Mitch to stop because suddenly I've got Headfirst for Halos in my head and am cracking and am, in general, a mess. Teresa, who really should work in crisis management, goes "Lets play the movie game" which is like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon only not. That helped as did most talking during that part.
When we stopped again I was fucking wrecked because between the pain, the endorphins, the stress, the lights - i was a sweat mess that was literally shaking. Lesbian Shirt Guy got me water and I walked around a little and went and checked her out. Her shirt wasn't any color at all and the wood wasn't...wood colored enough(which Mitch wanted me to check before we called it a day). She looked unfinished, partially because I forgot to tell Mitch I wanted her shirt in color. So like any good junkie I went back to get it done at which point I finally understood ink addiction. You know it hurts but you need it and you can't stop yourself. It was ...I have no idea how long after that but a pretty good while but that was the last leg and it hurt the very most because I was raw and exposed nerve endings by that point.
The total time to get her done was 2 1/2 hours and fuck me it really hurt. But this is the end result.
She's everything I hoped for and more. There are so many things I wasnt expecting, like the fall of her hair, or the lenses in the glasses or the way there's stress marks in the wood in the joints of her left elbow and wrist or how powerful the scissors look. But it all came together to be better than I'd hoped.
And it achieved its purpose already because the subject of winter break came up while I was getting tattooed talking about what we're doing over the break. I started talking about how I wasnt sure if I was going to see my dad and the guilt of not versus the stress and damage of going and Teresa holds up her hand and makes a scissor motion with her middle and index finger at which point I had moment of crystal clarity that this was the whole point of the tattoo. I cut my fucking strings dammnit. I dont have to do this. Not anymore. Not ever fucking again. That tattoo is the me I'm going to be.
Fuck the Blue Fairy. I'm making myself a real girl.