New tattoo work!
Jun. 21st, 2009 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moominmuppetReally stimulating session yesterday! Painful as hell (oh, the ribs, and the crease of my belly), but stimulating. And "painful as hell" did come with the incidental opportunity to play around with BDSM-style biofeedback and mental discipline. Not normally my thing (normally I play within the boundary of what my brain and nerves define as pleasant, as rough as it may appear from the outside), but interesting in this context, and handy to know. And although the roughest thing about all-day sessions is that my body just stops being able to pump out the endorphins after about four hours, and which point things get pretty rough, in the meantime, I did certainly get quite a high-floaty-head-spinny endogenous chemical rush for a while. Also, having my travel pillow with me was a godsend for all the extended-time-period awkward positions. I'm also really careful about staying hydrated and well-fed during long sessions, and that makes a big difference, and allowed me not to completely collapse in exhaustion and drop by the end (which I couldn't do, because there was four and half more hours of traveling before I was back in Albany).
I'm linking to the various sets of pics of the work at various points of progress:
The original reference images for, uh, reference
The original underpainting/sketch, also somewhat faded by time (although it was never dark).
The last session, arm basically complete, barring a few possible future final details
Some quick webcam pics (thanks, Caleb!) of the most recent work. Upper back is as complete as arm now, and lower back/hip is ready for next session, then moving down my leg (Edit: Just added a few wider angle shots -- ignore the tape goo stripes on my butt)
We've got a lot of ideas about where we're going next; my thigh will have some assortment of the more vertical pieces (Gaston LaChaise' Standing Woman, the Indian sculpture, the tall, slender piece by the modern Chinese sculptor, maybe the Venus of Lespugue), with various smaller background floating figures (the profile of the african piece, maybe the solid little sitting woman, the pre-dynastic kneeling Egyptian piece, maybe the Indian medallion piece and the more faded sheila-na-gig on the cornice). How exactly it comes together will be a bit of a mystery until it does. I still very much want to fit in the Inuit piece in a prominent location; I really love her, and she's particularly meaningful to me, and I'd love to figure a way to include the two caressing women by the modern Welsh sculptor. I won't be entirely shocked if I end up continuing the piece all the way down my leg. We're starting to shift colors as we move down; we may also go back over some of the arm/upper back to add some more reds to the ribbon, and it's possible we'll do some light washes of color over the negative-space pieces (there was originally some very light purple in the arm pieces, although it's almost entirely faded now). In the pics there are several very red areas where what's actually there is a very light grey wash; you won't be able to see it properly 'til it heals. Other red areas are actual red ink. It's a bit confusing. I'm not entirely sure which is which in a few spots myself. Oh, the itching I'm in for...
Also, we may just completely cover over my 1st tattoo (which was my Ball Python Pookie's pattern, from spine out to belly, around the little yin-yang that's over a birthmark, but all the browns and yellows have faded out almost completely (it's 17 years old). If not, I'll have him recolor it to mesh with the current piece. And since I really need to recolor the wu-fu backpiece (dark browns and reds, and the brown inks then really didn't have a long lifespan; I knew going in I'd need them retouched more often -- happily, Chris says there's been advances in that area), I may have him do it whenever we reach and arrange our final session -- find some tones that work for that piece, and also mesh with the major piece. while I'm at it, I should get my other smaller pieces touched up, too.
Also, I'm still really set on getting that other piece I've been thinking about: an anatomical drawing of the full structure of the clitoris (it's referential to both sexuality and biogeekery, which is an important intersection for me), probably on my right shoulder (funny note -- I only really look tattooed from one perspective. Viewing me from the right, if I'm standing just right you can't see any of them at all.) The thing is, I think that's the right location for it, but it also puts a relatively large piece of prime skin real estate out of commission for a relatively limited piece. So I'm pondering what to do about that. Back of my neck? Maybe. I haven't decided yet exactly which structures to include; a more abstract piece that's solely the glans and crux clitori? Sadly, I don't think there's a good way to include a diagramatic representation of the paraurethrals (a g-spot reference I'd like) without going full-on medical textbook with it. Ideas welcome from my health and sex geek friends!
Oh dear... I'm seriously tempted to do my entire other sleeve/back/thigh in male/intergendered and sexuality figures in a similar pattern, with different colors for the background and ribbon. The research I did on this piece certainly turned up a huge number I really love and connect with, that just weren't right for this theme (the female form). If I do that, I'd definitely move the structural image of the clitoris up to the back of my neck, though. I think I'd also have room to put something interesting and narrow and thematically related down my spine from there, connecting the two sides. I've pretty thoroughly abandoned my one-upon-a-time plans for my right hip and leg, so that's free space again. And the idea of that balance really appeals to me, given my views on gender and my own, in particular... If I do that, the narrow space tattoo might start with the clitoris at the top, and also incorporate a drawing of the X chromosome, since it's the sex chromosome that every human shares (it's not possible to develop completely as a fetus as YO, so the only possible combinations are XX, XY, XO, XXX, XXY, XYY, etc). Not sure yet how exactly I'd make it clear that it was that specific chromosome without actually just marking it "23", though. That's a reference to my interest in genetics, and also a nod to my perceptions of gender variety, although by no means accounting for the sum total that exist in the world (in fact, most of the genetic variations above don't affect phenotypic sex all that much). I like it as a connection between the two pieces, though, if I do that.
I'm linking to the various sets of pics of the work at various points of progress:
The original reference images for, uh, reference
The original underpainting/sketch, also somewhat faded by time (although it was never dark).
The last session, arm basically complete, barring a few possible future final details
Some quick webcam pics (thanks, Caleb!) of the most recent work. Upper back is as complete as arm now, and lower back/hip is ready for next session, then moving down my leg (Edit: Just added a few wider angle shots -- ignore the tape goo stripes on my butt)
We've got a lot of ideas about where we're going next; my thigh will have some assortment of the more vertical pieces (Gaston LaChaise' Standing Woman, the Indian sculpture, the tall, slender piece by the modern Chinese sculptor, maybe the Venus of Lespugue), with various smaller background floating figures (the profile of the african piece, maybe the solid little sitting woman, the pre-dynastic kneeling Egyptian piece, maybe the Indian medallion piece and the more faded sheila-na-gig on the cornice). How exactly it comes together will be a bit of a mystery until it does. I still very much want to fit in the Inuit piece in a prominent location; I really love her, and she's particularly meaningful to me, and I'd love to figure a way to include the two caressing women by the modern Welsh sculptor. I won't be entirely shocked if I end up continuing the piece all the way down my leg. We're starting to shift colors as we move down; we may also go back over some of the arm/upper back to add some more reds to the ribbon, and it's possible we'll do some light washes of color over the negative-space pieces (there was originally some very light purple in the arm pieces, although it's almost entirely faded now). In the pics there are several very red areas where what's actually there is a very light grey wash; you won't be able to see it properly 'til it heals. Other red areas are actual red ink. It's a bit confusing. I'm not entirely sure which is which in a few spots myself. Oh, the itching I'm in for...
Also, we may just completely cover over my 1st tattoo (which was my Ball Python Pookie's pattern, from spine out to belly, around the little yin-yang that's over a birthmark, but all the browns and yellows have faded out almost completely (it's 17 years old). If not, I'll have him recolor it to mesh with the current piece. And since I really need to recolor the wu-fu backpiece (dark browns and reds, and the brown inks then really didn't have a long lifespan; I knew going in I'd need them retouched more often -- happily, Chris says there's been advances in that area), I may have him do it whenever we reach and arrange our final session -- find some tones that work for that piece, and also mesh with the major piece. while I'm at it, I should get my other smaller pieces touched up, too.
Also, I'm still really set on getting that other piece I've been thinking about: an anatomical drawing of the full structure of the clitoris (it's referential to both sexuality and biogeekery, which is an important intersection for me), probably on my right shoulder (funny note -- I only really look tattooed from one perspective. Viewing me from the right, if I'm standing just right you can't see any of them at all.) The thing is, I think that's the right location for it, but it also puts a relatively large piece of prime skin real estate out of commission for a relatively limited piece. So I'm pondering what to do about that. Back of my neck? Maybe. I haven't decided yet exactly which structures to include; a more abstract piece that's solely the glans and crux clitori? Sadly, I don't think there's a good way to include a diagramatic representation of the paraurethrals (a g-spot reference I'd like) without going full-on medical textbook with it. Ideas welcome from my health and sex geek friends!
Oh dear... I'm seriously tempted to do my entire other sleeve/back/thigh in male/intergendered and sexuality figures in a similar pattern, with different colors for the background and ribbon. The research I did on this piece certainly turned up a huge number I really love and connect with, that just weren't right for this theme (the female form). If I do that, I'd definitely move the structural image of the clitoris up to the back of my neck, though. I think I'd also have room to put something interesting and narrow and thematically related down my spine from there, connecting the two sides. I've pretty thoroughly abandoned my one-upon-a-time plans for my right hip and leg, so that's free space again. And the idea of that balance really appeals to me, given my views on gender and my own, in particular... If I do that, the narrow space tattoo might start with the clitoris at the top, and also incorporate a drawing of the X chromosome, since it's the sex chromosome that every human shares (it's not possible to develop completely as a fetus as YO, so the only possible combinations are XX, XY, XO, XXX, XXY, XYY, etc). Not sure yet how exactly I'd make it clear that it was that specific chromosome without actually just marking it "23", though. That's a reference to my interest in genetics, and also a nod to my perceptions of gender variety, although by no means accounting for the sum total that exist in the world (in fact, most of the genetic variations above don't affect phenotypic sex all that much). I like it as a connection between the two pieces, though, if I do that.
