Tattoo! Tattootattootattoo!

[moominmuppet]

Yay!

(both sets of pics involve some incidental boobage; not entirely worksafe)
Photos of where it was before

How far we got

So happy! We got a lot further than we expected to, and we've got a tentative appt for this coming February. Portland, Maine, where Chris Dingwell is now working (out of Sanctuary Tattoo) is very cute, and the time with forestfire was excellent. Although we may do a bit of final tweaking to some of the color once this session's healed (I'm particularly thinking about asking him to add some rust and blood-red tones to the ribbon), my arm is basically done, we got one of the figures on my back completed, and a start on the Venus of Laussel that's the main image on my back so far. I'm currently looking through my resource book (collection of all the research I did when we first started more than a decade ago), determining which images we'll go to from here. I know the Venus of Lespugue is going to be the central image on the side of my thigh, but haven't decided about the pieces in-between. Yay, fun decisions!

The inside of my arm has a crazy bruise, because I bruise crazy easily, and eight hours of working the area, holding the skin tight, definitely had effects. As I told Chris, who was shocked and apologetic about it, I'm not worried. The bruise'll fade, the tattoo will stay.

Oh. Random idea for another tattoo I want to write down while I'm thinking about it... A representation of the full structure of the clit (glans, shaft, and crurae, which make an interesting shape) (link not really worksafe, has genital photos). It's something most people would never recognize, but to me it'd be a commentary on sexuality, and geekery, and how long it took the scientific community to understand anything about female sexuality, etc. Possibly on my right shoulder.


Note to self, some handy links off this wikipedia article (I'm also checking around for images I didn't find back then, since there's so much more available online than there used to be.) If you happen to know of interesting sculptural representations of the female form that don't include clothing or props, from any time period, I'd be interested in pointers, too. I'm trying to represent as many regions of the world, and a relatively wide time frame (I've got a few modern pieces that reference the paleolithic that I'll probably include, too). I'm trying to get a wide variety of body shapes, but avoiding hybrid images like owl-goddess figures and such (that example comes to mind because I've got an image of one that's very cool, but wouldn't work with this piece).

Bookmarks I've already noted to look through in more detail for interesting images (a few of the sites are pretty bullshit-laden, but that's not what interests me about them; it's images of the figures themselves):
http://www.sheelanagig.org/ (although most aren't what I'd want, there are a few I really like, and I'm still looking for some better images of some of them)

http://www.beyond-the-pale.org.uk/sheela2.htm

http://www.suppressedhistories.net/articles/eller5.html

http://www.suppressedhistories.net/articles/icons.html

http://orissagov.nic.in/e-magazine/Journal/Journal2/pdf/ohrj-07.pdf

http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Sheela_na_Gig

http://www.beyond-the-pale.org.uk/zxWhittlesford.htm


For those I haven't explained this piece to, at its core, it's about the fact that the desire to create is such an immensely human trait, that it connects us. That thinking about the human being who carved an image on a cave wall 30,000 years ago that looks like what I see when I look in the mirror gives me a much greater sense of our shared humanity than names or dates ever will. The female form has been represented so much throughout human history, for so many reasons (I actually don't really like describing this as my "fertility figures" tattoo, because I don't think it's accurate or complete in its description of what these figures might've originally meant to the people who created them). Putting this piece on myself is my way of placing myself within that human history of creating this image. Also, it's a big ol' fuck-you to narrow beauty standards.

Comments

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

Yay! it's so much more colorful now! Bravo!

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Yay indeed!

Hey, I've been meaning to ask; with the new job, are you still thinking about moving back over here this fall or no? I lost track of whether the one you chose was nearer to my place.

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

The one I chose was over here in the Far East but it's not long term and I haven't started yet so I don't know what the odds are on my extending it out.

If somebody else is in a hurry to move in, it wouldn't be fair for me to keep them from it. But if there isn't, its still something I'm thinking of. I just don't have enough information to commit yet. Mix-ups with the mail and with the need for a drug test has pushed my whole world back by a week or so.

I really wish I had more of a clue.

By The Way, I think a package might be wending it's way to me at your address from Australia. No clue what's going to be in it but I know it won't get here if mailed to my address. heh.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

I'll keep an eye out for the package. No, there's no one waiting in the wings; just figuring out near-future life stuff. No big rush on deciding.