Hi, Im New!!

[Graeme]

I decided on my next tattoo- Id like to get A Beautiful Chaos on my front shoulder with almost water color looking glass.

Thoughts? I'm going to wait a bit of course but its meaningful to me. My life is always in chaos somehow but there's always beauty that comes from it.

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The problem with the idea of tattoos needing to have meaning is that it usually seems like the design of the tattoo is overlooked in favour of its meaning, which more often than not leads to bad tattoos. I literally have no idea what "A Beautiful Chaos on my front shoulder with almost water color looking glass" would look like, or even what it is. Maybe there is a tattoo artist somewhere who could take that idea and do something great with it, but then again, maybe not.

I'm going to suggest that based on what you've written here about the tattoo you have that you had a profound experience last weekend. There is something about tattooing, something about willingly putting a permanent mark on your body, that had a deep effect on you in ways that you might not be able to articulate. It brought you out of your regular routine into an unfamiliar and exciting world, it made you feel strong and beautiful, it made you feel like regardless of what other things are going on in your life and around you that you have some measure of control. Or maybe other things, or maybe none of them. I'm also going to suggest that you would have had this experience regardless of what you had tattooed on you. You would have felt similar things if it was a rose, or a swallow, or a dragon. That's where the meaning of tattoos is. Obviously you still need to choose imagery that appeals to you, but if you want to convey a sense of beauty there is no shortage of tattooable imagery that works for that...you can absolutely never go wrong with birds and flowers, for example. You'll end up with a far better tattoo that way.

[irezumi]

Ishmael Johnson Austin Tattoo Convention 2013 Interview for Tattoo Artist Magazine (VIDEO) | TAM Blog

notexpected please watch the whole thing or at least skip to about 6:00 mark or so

[motsimus]

Instead of the words 'a beautiful chaos' ,why don't you get a Lady head with a dagger through it or an hourglass shattering or some other ornamental object breaking (vase, lantern or whatever) these are just some suggestions, but they are still all better than font.

[CultExciter]

Ishmael Johnson Austin Tattoo Convention 2013 Interview for Tattoo Artist Magazine (VIDEO) | TAM Blog

notexpected please watch the whole thing or at least skip to about 6:00 mark or so

When I designed the layouts in TAM where Ishmael and Dave were essentially having a conversation, I immediately realized I wanted to get tattooed by both of them.

[irezumi]

Both of them are remarkably talented. I've watched Dave draw and tattoo plenty of times; skilled craftsman and a real understanding and eye for drawing from life.

[hogg]

Ishmael Johnson Austin Tattoo Convention 2013 Interview for Tattoo Artist Magazine (VIDEO) | TAM Blog

notexpected please watch the whole thing or at least skip to about 6:00 mark or so

Super entertaining watch. Thanks!