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Wow! How in the world did you manage that? I can't imagine...

I had a great Christmas! Because I spend so much time on the road people know that I don't want anything that's very big and that's not useful or AWESOME. I got 2 pounds of my favorite coffee a carved wood demon coin bank a smudge stick comfy pajama pants a couple bottles of nice wine gift cards to Amazon and Barnes and Noble jewelry and some other girly stuff that will be easy to pack

I'm going Friday for sure. My next contract is going to be in a TINY town about an hour and some from Austin. I may trek out to San Angelo too but it'll be a bit of a drive so I'm on the fence about that one. I don't know a soul in Austin and would love to meet up.

Oh lord. The thought makes my skin crawl. I'm going to have to use super google-fu to make sure that I don't run into that EVER.

Very interesting. I've had great results with acupuncture.

Amazing!

Watching the difference between their reactions made me want to try it! Palm tattoos would NEVER fly in my line of work though so I'll have to continue to wonder...

I left Alaska in 1986 or '87 I think... Haven't been back since then but my husband is hoping I'll take him for a visit there within the next few years. We'll have to see. I would prefer to show him Alaska in the winter but I don't get around very well in the cold anymore so if it was going to be fun for me it would probably have to be a summer visit.

Oh my goodness! @Deb Yarian! I was just looking at your instagram and saw the picture you posted of Star the reindeer. I remember her from when I was a kid! I had no idea she was still around. It may not be true anymore but she used to be in a chain link enclosure and kids could come and pet her through the fence. I am so thrilled to see her! :-) Brings back so many memories. (I cried when I heard a few years ago that Binky the polar bear had died. We lived pretty much right across the street from the Anchorage zoo when I was in kindergarten and I spent many, many hours hanging out near Binky. He was my favorite animal there... Annabelle the elephant was a close second.)

I grew up in Alaska. I have fabulous memories of skiing and snowmobiling and tromping through the snow... and the BEAUTY! So amazingly beautiful up there!! But whenever anyone asks if I'd go back I tell them that I would never live there again. It's just too dark. It's hard to keep your chin up when the sun is only out for a few hours a day... But! The spring will come again! ;)

I'm amazed at the incredible art work that is able to be put on skin! I'm amazed at the ingenuity, the skill, and the obvious talent of so many, many, many tattoo artists out there. Until I started coming here and following a bunch of tattooers on Instagram I had NO IDEA that so many spectacular tattoos are being done in the world. I remember looking at old tattoo magazines at my uncle's house when I was a teenager and thinking that they were amazing - but it was so unreal to me - stuff in a magazine y'know. And then tattooing was illegal in Oklahoma until not too many years ago - not to say that there weren't tattoos happening, but it was all fairly hush hush (and most of them weren't very good) and I never thought to look to see what else was out there. And now my mind is blown every. single. day. Perhaps the most amazing thing of all - great tattoos are accessible to just about everybody. You don't have to be famous, or wealthy, or otherwise connected to be able to get an awesome tattoo. It takes just a little bit of research and attention to what is going on out there. AMAZING!! It's one of the coolest things ever. I regret that I have been missing out on all this for so long.

I have to admit that I am now totally addicted to Instagram! I had written it off as very Iphoney/hipsterish (and since I am too old to be "cool" anymore, and don't use an Iphone... well...). But Wow!! I signed up just to follow some of the tattooers I like but since then I'm following all kinds of other people too. It's probably my favorite site right now. I'm constantly checking my feed for new pictures. I can't believe I was missing out on this for so long!

Although I don't have any relevant tattoo-shop experience I have experienced a similar situation in the world of physical therapy/rehab. I'm a speech therapist, there's A LOT of money in rehab now and it's been this way for about a decade or so. Once upon a time pretty much all the rehab companies were owned/run by actual therapists. But when business-people saw how much money could be made running a rehab company a lot of new companies were started up with nobody with any real rehab experience at the helm. Those companies SUCK to work for. They don't understand what we really do in our day to day practice and there's a constant push to work in ways that push the boundaries of our ethics. The pursuit of the almighty $$ becomes more important than providing the best quality of care for our patients. Right now, with the changes happening in Medicare/Medicaid, it looks like in the future there may be less money to be made in rehab. And although it's likely to affect my own pocketbook to some degree, I will be glad if it forces changes in the way rehab businesses are run.

Thanks for the advice. I don't want to make it harder for them - or for myself! Crossing my fingers but I might be able to get in with Steve Byrne the first week of February (have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to find out if my work contract is confirmed or not). With just one or two exceptions I have liked everything of his that I've seen. I can't imagine that he would put something on me and I *wouldn't* like it. So, if it works out that I can get in, hopefully I can convey to him my intent without seeming like I don't care. - - - Updated - - - To clarify a bit... It's not so much that I don't know what I like stylistically. I have a clear vision of the style of tattoos I'm attracted to. It's more that once that piece is established, and I'm talking to a tattooer who does good work, I don't have any especially strong feelings about the particular subject matter. My sister doesn't have any tattoos now, but she has some very specific things that she wants (e.g. "a swallow carrying a paintbrush"). I could be equally happy with this, or that, or that, or that, or that, or that, or that. (except that I really DON'T want any of the things my sister says she wants! maybe it's a sibling thing :p)

So - here's my dilemma. My goal is "squid pants". And I honestly don't really care much what all goes into them. I have a (short) list of things that I don't want... but otherwise I care more about just having good looking work on me. I want "fancy" legs. That's it. So how do I convey this to potential tattooers without sounding like a total flake? I worry that if I say "I don't care, do whatever you want, except for "x" things" they'll brush me off as someone who is in it just for some kind of status thing or something... which isn't the case at all. It's VERY personal to me. It's just that I'm not attached to any specific imagery. I don't want to "overshare" with my tale of woe about why exactly I need fancy legs... but I don't want to get written off either... Any advice?

@SStu - now following Nate Beavers on Instagram and will definitely try to book something if I end up in Houston. Right now it looks like I *may* end up in a tiny town about an hour outside of Austin. Nothing is signed yet, but that would be cool. I've heard Austin is a lot like Portland (except for being in Texas) ;-)

Fuck yeah! That's major! Congratulations!!

@LosingShape - I lived in Portland for 11 years and still miss it every day. It's a great city and I'm sure you will find your niche. What part of the city are you living in?

@embers What a great birthday present! Happy Birthday!

I'm so stoked too! :) I truly couldn't be happier with it. And I'm so excited to move forward and get more. I owe the artist (Levi Hatch at Think Ink in Norman, OK) a debt of gratitude. He had the vision and then the skill to execute it. And he was so nice and easy to spend 5 consecutive hours with. He made it a great experience and got me off on the right foot.

Update: It totally worked! I was a little worried that I would get a leg tattoo and still hate my legs... But I've spent pretty much every waking moment since I got my raven-girl staring at my leg (and pictures of my leg) with absolute adoration. I <3 my leg!! Yay!! Also - I figured out the probable reason *why* I've been persistently dreaming about leg tattoos. My motor nerves are dying but my sensory nerves are fine. However, because of the motor damage my sensory nerves are freaking out pretty much all the time and I have a constant pins and needles/sunburn feeling from my ankles to my knees. It's much worse at night (like a toothache I imagine, worse when there's nothing else to think about). Anyway, as soon as he started I realized that the sensation was just a notch stronger than what I've been feeling all the time anyway. And - I learned to trust my tattooer. I had gone in initially telling him "I don't really care, do whatever you want". And then we had talked about a few things and kind of nailed down an idea or two. When I came in to get the tattoo the drawing he showed me wasn't what we had talked about at all and my initial thought was to cancel altogether. But then I thought on it for a minute and recalled that I had told him that he pretty much had free reign to do what he wanted so I went with it even though it wasn't what I had expected it to be. And it is AWESOME! Better than I ever imagined and I couldn't be more pleased with the thing. And now I want more ;)

Phase one of "project squidpants" is complete! :-) "Raven Steals the Sun" - done in ~4 hours tonight by Levi Hatch at Think Ink Tattoos in Norman Oklahoma. Completely and totally in love with it - it wasn't exactly what we had talked about and it took me a minute to come around to his vision after he showed me the drawing. Now, the more I look at it the more I love it.

I <3 your leg!! (I especially like the umbrella too!)

The obvious Parkinson's symptoms made me sad. I work with a lot of folks with Parkinson's and it's a super tough disease. I'm sorry that ANYONE has to go through that. :(