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

[jajy1979.livejournal.com]

Very vivid.

As for the clit tattoo, yeah that seems very you. My only complaint is that they didn't use a particularly pretty cunt in the article. There are much better looking ones out there. :-P

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

And for myself I look at the article and think "awesome, a diagram of the internal clitoris" closely followed by "oh dear, they're using jpg for line drawings?" :)

It would make a wonderful tattoo though.

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

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

[chameleonpixie.livejournal.com]

Ooooh! You have a very talented tatoo artist.

I love the progression.

And I like the clit idea.

[may-dryad.livejournal.com]

That is just gorgeous. The darker it gets the better it looks, so I'm definitely in favor of adding some dark red to the ribbon. Gotta love the menstruation imagery.

Heh, now I'm imagining how utterly cheesy it would be if the ribbon were pink. Though you could probably get part of the work subsidized by the Komen people if it were.

[recoiling.livejournal.com]

Oh wow- that is stunningly beautiful. I love the idea of the clit tattoo- Keep us updated on any future planning for that if you please. :)

Speaking of sex and science geekery, have you picked up the book "Bonk" yet? I got it about a month ago thinking I wouldn't be able to put it down and now it's been relegated to a shelf in my bedroom only to pick up when I'm finished with everything else. I was reading a review of it on Greta Christina's blog and thought of you immediately for some reason [unfortunately, I don't know many geeks who like to combine their sex with science in real life], so here you go: http://blog.blowfish.com/culture/greta-christina-tee-hee-you-said-bonk/800

[coffee-and-gin.livejournal.com]

Wow! Very nice!

Unrelated, other than in a very vague way: I love Maine so much.