Latest tattoo.....

I think I'm addicted to tattoos.  I LOVE the one on my back, but as I wrote previously...I can't see it, so I wanted to get one that I COULD see.

It's not quite finished yet...I need to go in for another touch-up soon...

My friend, Liza, also came along because she got HER first tattoo...a beautiful little tribute to Cristian.

My tattoo!!!!

I've been thinking about doing this for such a long time...all the way back to my sophomore year in college when everyone was doing it.  Instead, I got my belly button pierced because I didn't want to commit to anything that I didn't truly love or identify with, you know, since forever is a REALLY LONG TIME to have a tattoo that you don't really like.  And after Joacim got his recent one, it really got me thinking about it again.

I definitely wanted to design my own, and incorporate Izzy into it.  I found some images on the internet and started showing them to Joacim, and he told me about Voluta Tattoo, which is a studio in downtown Indy.   I went to their site and saw Dina's work, and I knew that she was the one I wanted to do this and I'm sooo glad I chose her.

I did the first session on Mother's Day.  Kind of appropriate for me since the tattoo is about Izzy...anyway, at this session, she created the stencil and placed it on my back, then used a henna-colored ink to do the outline of the tattoo.  Now granted, you're getting stuck with a needle hundreds and hundreds of times, but the PAIN!!! Argh!!!  I had no idea..I mean, I pushed a baby out of my hoo-ha without drugs, right?  A tattoo should be a piece of cake.  Well, not so much, at least not for me while I'm on these meds.  The cyclosporine makes my skin REALLY sensitive...had I been smarter I would've done this before the cyclosporine back in December when I was still on steroids..that would've numbed the pain a bit!

See how red it is???

I went back for the 2nd session a couple of weeks later, after the tattoo had healed.  At this session, she did a majority of the coloring to bring it to life.

I LOVE IT.  love love love.  I love that when I see it, I instantly think of Izzy..I mean, that looks so similar to her from behind!  She actually used a photo I had sent her of Izzy petting Murphy, and used that as her template.  It's perfect.

I'll go back again in a few more weeks to get the final pass done.  At this one she'll do some shading to bring depth to the tattoo.  I can't wait to see what it looks like after that!

Joacim's tattoo touchup

This past week, Joacim went back to the place he got his tattoo for a touchup.  He wanted more yellow in it, so I tagged along to see the process.  I haven't been able to go to any of the others because they've been later in the evenings and much longer, but we didn't thinki this would take long, so it worked out perfectly.

This guys is talented..no doubt about it.  The drawings and paintings in his part of the studio were incredible!  Granted, not exactly my taste, but I can appreciate his talent.

It was really cool to watch...but I never thought about the bleeding, or how fast the skin would swell.  The tattoo looks really good, but I'll wait until it's completely healed before posting another photo.

Joacim's tattoo

For those of you that don't already know, Joacim has a tattoo. I'm not sure why that surprises so many people, but it's happened several times. Anyway, this isn't about surprising people about his tattoo, but rather what he had added to it.

He's been talking about getting another one for awhile. He wants to get a portrait of Izzy sometime, but he has to find the right person to do that, and it's not easy. He put some serious time into researching local artists, and was lucky to have found a really good one close to here. His name is Ryan Dearringer, and here is his website

Let's go back and revisit the tattoo that he already has....

Ok, this picture was taken WAYYYYY back in 2005 when we were on our honeymoon in St. Lucia, but it's really the only photo I could find of his tattoo (he'll probably hate the fact that it's a picture of him eating though...OMG...I remember how good that meal tasted...it was chicken something, and I think we ate it every day...OK, MUST STAY FOCUSED.... :)
And here's what it looked like when he came home after round 2. The tattoo actually took 3 visits to complete, but I didn't get any photos after the 1st time because there really wasn't much to show.

Here's a close-up of the eagle.

What was really cool was that the tattoo artist used sharpies to draw on Joacim's arm so he could get an idea of what the tattoo would look like when completely finished, and I have to admit, I had a hard time telling that it was sharpies and not the actual tattoo

Now, let's look at the finished product.....he came pretty damn close to the sharpie drawing, don't you think?






I wish I would've taken more pictures of the in-between stages, because I had no idea how weird it would look while it was healing. You watch those tattoo shows on TV, and they just walk out with some plastic taped over their newest body art, but I never knew how long it takes to heal

Ok, before I end this post, I wanted to show you all photos of the skull that I got Joacim for Valentines Day...remember...the COOLEST GIFT EVER??? Ok, I'm probably the only one that thinks this, but so be it.