OnyxRose

Glad your back recovered well! We always had cheap store-bought costumes when I was a kid, but my children are somewhat spoiled there, because their mama likes to go all out for costumes. And they're usually handmade, because their mama is also a stickler for detail and possibly also a masochist. I couldn't find a storebought costume that was detailed enough for Daughter's (she wants to be a specific Disney princess), and none of the available sewing patterns were just right, so this year I even drafted an entire pattern for hers. Wearing a costume is half the fun for me. Guess I just haven't outgrown it yet :) I just don't like the sewing part.

It just takes once, @pidjones. I got out of bed one day and threw a hip out of place. My lower back has never been the same since. Lately I'm sewing and sewing and SEWING... Halloween's coming up and while it's my second-favorite holiday, I HATE costume prep. Cardboard is a terrible medium to work with, but it's the easiest way to costume a wheelchair - oldest child is non-mobile. This year he wants to be a Dalek, and it took me all week to get the cardboard parts to stay together. (Lesson learned: glue first, then paint, and that way there is no sewing cardboard bits together with yarn.) His will be finished tomorrow, and then I get to start on the younger child's costume. There may or may not be time to finish mine by Friday, but as long as the kids' are done, I'll be happy.

Okay, so what do you do when you realize several days after that you didn't tip *enough*? My tattoo cost a little more than I had in cash on me, so I paid the much-smaller balance via Paypal. I clicked the "add tip" button on the Paypal screen, but I was so busy talking with the artist that I didn't realize that I had clicked the automatic 20% tip button on just the card payment, which turned out to only be something like 3% of the total amount. Oops. I won't be going in for another tattoo for another year at least (got some other things need doing around the house first) and this one doesn't need any immediate touchup work. Should I just go back in next payday with the rest of the tip amount and explain what happened?

@pidjones I've still got the tonsils (well, obviously, you can't get tonsillitis without 'em) but they aren't a chronic problem. This is only my fifth tonsillitis issue in my whole life. My problem was always ears as a kid. I had ear infections left and right, but my tonsils very seldom give me any trouble! - - - Updated - - - @KBeee I'm pretty sure it was an actual bug; it's been weeks and I'm still dealing with some sinus-related stuff that never went away, but the worst of it was gone within a week. But I won't know for sure till next time if it's how I react or if it was just bad timing. I tend to catch one or two of the bugs my kids bring home every year, but I was perfectly healthy the day of the appointment, no hint of any sick at all. Can't hurt to add immune system support for next time, though.

According to the Boyfriend, the bicep is the worst place. That may be owing to the circumstances in which he got it. He got hammered off base while out of country a decade ago, and let "a piss-drunk one-eyed British guy in a local bar" tattoo him. Now, this is a man who's been shot, stabbed, beaten, blown up, and injured in various other ways on the job, and who has a fairly high pain tolerance. He says he "screamed like a little bitch" getting the devil on his bicep, and I told him that was probably more because he let a piss-drunk one-eyed guy in a bar do it while he was drunk himself. He has ideas to get that one touched up (it's pretty badly faded and some lines have disappeared altogether), plus something on the other bicep, and I intend to steer him in the direction of an actual tattooer this time. Not like we're lacking for those around here; there are probably 15 in this city, and at least a few whose work is good. I can vouch for two, anyway, having personal experience with one and knowing a handful of people who have gotten good tattoos from the other.

I was talking with my tattoo-shop-owner neighbor this morning, and he mentioned that the tattoo looks like it's healing up well. I told him I was glad for that, since I was gotten sick a couple days after getting it and was concerned that it wouldn't heal nicely. I'm pretty sure I had a bug my child brought home from school (it was mostly sinus, but also tonsillitis with a cough; Son didn't have it, but his teacher had the same thing right before I did), but Neighbor said he gets sinus issues almost every time he gets work done. It made me curious. Is this something other people experience regularly, or something anyone else has heard of? No one else I know personally who has tattoos has ever mentioned getting sick afterward, so maybe it just isn't a common reaction? I guess I'll find out next time if this was just a bug I caught or if it's part of my healing process. Sure hope it isn't, because I don't want to be stuck in bed for two days and sick for a week and a half every time I get a new tattoo. (Also, I wasn't sure if this was the right forum to post this in. If not, do I move it or do mods move it?)

I have a bad back, courtesy of a hip that threw itself out twice when I was 26, and since then if I stay in one position for too long my lower back gets locked up and really sore. Most days I take some ibuprofen or naproxen to help with the pain and stiffness, but the day of my tattoo appointment I didn't take any because I'd read all over the place not to take painkillers in advance. While the tattoo did hurt (I mean... hello, getting jabbed with needles a few thousand times hurts!), by the end of the session my back was much more sore than getting the tattoo had been. It was only an hour and a half long sitting, but I had to lie almost perfectly flat on my back the whole time, only had a couple minutes break when he switched machines for the shading. Next time I expect that the session will be longer, so I'll take my painkillers in advance to prevent my back from getting cranky, and maybe to help with the needle pain too (though that would be secondary). I did happen to muse about that when I was talking to my tattooer afterward, and he said he nearly always takes a couple Advil before he gets tattooed. He said it helps take the edge off and didn't seem to cause any trouble with excess bleeding in his experience.

You could always go with a more traditional swastika. I mean, the shape would still be recognizable for what it is, but it may not look as... Aggressive? Maybe not so much like a symbol of hatred? The difference between the Indian one and the Nazi one, as it was explained to me by the Indian (as in, emigrated from India) Hindu people I know, is mainly the color and the angle of the symbol. The religious swastika is usually shown with the top and bottom arms parallel to the “floor,” so to speak, is usually red and/or yellow (these being auspicious colors in the Hindu faith) and has dots in the arms, like so: The Nazi swastika is black (an inauspicious, negative color by itself, to Hindus), has no dots, and is angled at 45 degrees instead of straight. They used the religious symbol as the basis for their flag, just altered its position and color, put it on a white circle over a red rectangle, and adulterated its symbolism for most of the world. To the point that many people don’t even know that it ever had good connotations - I was certainly never taught where the swastika originated. I was an adult before I learned that it was thousands of years old and was an important symbol in at least three Eastern religions. In fact, the only reason I even really learned as much as I did was because I was engaged to an Indian man who has Hindu parents and his mother gave me absolute hell because I refused to include a swastika in any of our wedding stuff. She took it upon herself to educate me in the history and symbolism of the swastika. (In the end it didn't matter, because I caught him sleeping with other women and I left him, so there never was a wedding.)

That's what the music was for, to help me get into that zone. I have trouble focusing past pain without it, and talking/listening to someone else talk just for the sake of talking when I'm trying to get through something painful doesn't help at all, it just makes me irritable. Better to get the chitchat done before and near the end than to force myself to be chatty during most of it, for me. I did make sure to keep the volume at a low enough level that I could hear any directions or questions. The book was really because I had gotten to a good part in the story and finding time to read is rare around here. But I found it was too annoying to have to hold it up and turn pages without moving my other arm at all. Next time I won't bother with the book.

Most people probably don't know you can tattoo over solid black. I didn't, until just now when I read your post, and I'm almost willing to bet that I'm not the only person on this site who didn't know that before you said it.

Sister has two tattoos, and says her outer ankle (right above the bone) was worse than her shoulderblade (about halfway between shoulderblade and spine). I've only got one and apparently I picked an "easy" spot, so I can't speak from experience on multiple tattoos. But I figured going in if I could get through unmedicated (yes, on purpose) childbirth, then I could manage a tattoo. Childbirth was way worse. About the same duration, but the tattoo was nothing worse than a cat scratch compared to baby-birthing. I did, however, have the benefit of distraction while getting the tattoo; my kids were very impatient about being born so there wasn't anything else for me to focus on, but I went in for the tattoo with an iPod. I didn't start to get chatty with the artist until the last ten minutes when all that was left was a little bit of shading and a couple lines that couldn't be done at the beginning. I brought a book too; that lasted all of three pages and I gave up.

You're welcome. He did a great job. It honestly looks like the lion could turn his head and look at you; he's almost 3D with the angle of that photo.

An open letter to my puppy: I know the lotion smells weird and not like me. But please kindly refrain from attempting to lick it off the tattoo. I am SURE that dog spit is not part of the recommended aftercare routine for tattoo healing. Love, Your Person.

That's breathtaking.

I have occasionally had bookstore employees ask me what the cover looked like if I couldn't remember the title or author of the book I was after. But if the title or author escaped me, I could nearly always tell them the genre at least, so there was something of a starting point. I haven't worked in a bookstore, but I can imagine how frustrating it is to hear things like that all day.

Any of Abby Franquemont's spindle videos on YouTube. If you have a yarn shop near you, they may have some spinners who can help, too. I struggled to pick up on it easily until I was able to sit down with a wheel spinner (I was shopping for a wheel at the time, but I haven't purchased one yet) and that's when I finally clicked on how to spin and draft at the same time. It takes some practice and first yarn will be lumpy and uneven, but don't let that put you off. I was spinning almost a year before I finally got a yarn that I considered "good" and I still have a lot to learn, because I've only been at it about three years. It may help to invest in a good quality, balanced spindle - sometimes those toy wheel ones aren't very good for beginners who are just starting out. Schacht makes a line of good drop spindles that can be used as high/top or low/bottom whorl, they're balanced and not very expensive. Mine is the medium weight one and it cost me about $40 at a localish yarn shop. Also, since you're on Ravelry, definitely take advantage of the spinning groups. Beginning Spinning is one aimed at newbies to the craft, and they can point you in the right direction for a ton of good resources. (I was very active on Ravelry under a different name until recently due to some personal issues, and while I have a new account now, I haven't been active on the forums yet with it.) As for progress pics, once I get my computer back I'll get some up. It was really old and completely fried, so I'm waiting on my uncle to transfer the hard drive to a different one for me. For now I'm stuck on an old iPad and lots of sites don't allow for upoads from this device.

I've let the idea of a lace tattoo go. After speaking to the neighbor and doing more research online, it appeared that the only way to make a lace tattoo in the sort of design I wanted work long-term, would be to make it much, much bigger than I want. No offense intended to people who have bigger pieces, I think it's a great art form if that's what you're into, but I don't want that for myself. I figure I can always do small, intricate, lacy stuff in henna, because that's only meant to last a couple weeks anyway, and have moved on to other ideas for the next one. I will still have the artist draw it up, but for the idea I have I'm comfortable going back to my original artist for that. There's also a script tattoo I'd like to get, after I figure out where to put it that isn't too limited, because it may require adding to later on.

The last of the scabs fell off on their own this morning. So now it's at that "hazy glazed-over" look and some of the lower parts are starting to do the sunburn peeling thing. Not touching, not touching, not touching... Well, at least the peeling is less noticeable than the scabbing when the skin is adequately hydrated, so if I keep up with the lotion now it will be easier mentally to Not Touch. I'm gonna give it another week or so and then go visit my guy to have him look it over. It looks a little patchy in a couple spots to me, but that might just be the healing stage. I'll give it until all the peeling is done before I go in.

I've tried that, but my skin is still tender there and all it does it make it hurt. I don't have any frame of reference as far as tattoo healing goes because this is my first, so I don't know if it's just how I heal, but the skin sensitivity due to illness has been gone for a couple days, and it's just right there that hurts anymore. It's fine putting lotion on and washing it, but I tried slapping insteach of scratching yesterday and decided scratching around it was less painful. I just have to pay more attention, because ow. Most of the sick is gone, too, just a lingering bit of tonsillitis left. I still can't eat much but jello and soup broth, and I've dropped seven pounds in five days, but I can breathe, hear, and speak!

I've seen a couple all-natural-type aftercare balms that have tea tree oil in them, but I haven't found much about healing tattoos with tea tree oil alone or as the only essential oil in a carrier oil. A couple anecdotal stories here and there, but most people seem to be of the opinion that typically-recommended lotions like Lubriderm or Aquaphor or Eucerin are the gold standard. (My artist recommended Lubriderm, so that's what I've been using, but I am seriously researching Saniderm and similar products for the next one.) I accidentally scratched my elephant today. I've been keeping the itch at bay by very lightly scratching about around the tattoo, but this afternoon I wasn't paying attention and instead went right over the spot where it was itching. The top layer of the thickest scabs came off, but thankfully most of it was undisturbed. Even with most of the scabs being still intact, it is MAD at me. I put on a little more lotion to help calm it down but it's still a little sore.

I spent most of my "free" (ha) time last night knitting a complicated lace thing to keep my hands busy so I wouldn't scratch or pick. I might just finish that project this week waiting for this tattoo to finish flaking off.

I add to it as I can, but quality tattoos cost a good chunk of money, so it'd be easier on me financially if I didn't have to shell out for two tanks of gas each way plus likely a hotel for the night in addition to the tattoo.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I think it's a common misconception for people with office jobs or regular 9-to-5's who get to leave their work at work at the end of the day. I used to think things like that when I was younger and just getting into the workforce, had office jobs, etc. Then a few yers ago I got laid off, and I started selling the art that had been a hobby, and I was surprisingly able to make a living at it. Now I know better than to think or say that it seems like a hobby because it's fun. This used to be a hobby, but that was when I didn't have to rely on it to support myself and a couple of kids. I love my work, and it is fun, but it's also WORK. I do it from home, with at least one kid home most of the time because I make enough to pay the bills and buy food, but not enough to pay for daycare or rent a studio. More often than not I can't work during the day because I'm busy with the kid, so up late working on a new piece, or, like this month, several because there's an art show coming up and I have to have enough to stock a booth for an entire weekend. Yeah, it's fun, and I wouldn't trade it for anything even as exhausting as it can be, but man, is it hard work!

Not picking, not picking, not picking... Some of the scabs around the edges have fallen off on their own and some of the ones nearer the middle are loose, but I am trying very hard to be good about leaving them alone. Partly because every time I look like I might touch it, my little three-year-old parrots back to me what I told her when I first got it: "Don't touch, just look!"

Thanks for those! Miami's a bit far for my gas budget, half a day's drive for me at least, but the other two are much closer.