CShaw

Lara at Daredevil also does beautiful peonies.

I just saw you roll up on my IG, @sophistre, and came right over to see if you'd posted yet. Looks AMAZING!

We just went around mine, leaving a little ring of un-tattooed skin around so that I or my dermatologist can see any changes in the moles' borders. I've got too much skin cancer in my family to risk not being able to see an abnormality. (If they're flat and look like little pinpricks of red ink, they may not be moles, but tiny capillary growths called cherry hemangiomas. I've got tons of those.)

I got some blowout on one of my bats when I got the lines done, on one of the wing tips curving up over the trapezius area of my neck/shoulder. Very streaky, instead of the sort of halo staining I'd seen from my research beforehand. I sent the artist a picture of it, then when I went in for my next session, she said, "Eh, I'm gonna put a leaf there anyway." I can still see the blown-out ink if I look hard for it, but the leaves did absorb it really well.

Wasn't quite sure where to put this, but there's an article about Daredevil Tattoo in Inked, about the museum pieces at the shop. Anyway, I thought some of you tattoo history buffs might be interested in the old flash. :)

Hee. I'm terrible about neologisms, rude portmanteau words, and onomatopoeia-ing. I'm also one of those people who pronounces the "wh" in whale, which, why, etc. So imagine me sitting up on the table with blotchy, puffy face, demented hair, and feverish light in my eyes, blowing out my cheeks with a "WHOOOF."

Welp, except for a touch-up sometime in the future if I need one, I am done. Still bruised and inflamed in certain places, so will post pics later. Absolutely the most painful session to date, I suppose because it was a hopscotch of smaller things all over my back instead of just grinding in two or three bigger areas one after the other. Whoof.

@jen7 I was always going to get a tattoo when I "earned it." Lost the weight, sold a book, etc, etc, etc. I'm still overweight, and have always hated my body, but I can't even tell you how lovely it is to look in the mirror and like something you see. Instead of just going out into the bedroom to dry off after a shower, and avoiding the Hugh Jass vanity mirror like the plague on the way in, I twist around to look at my lovely back every time. Seriously, it's like when they painted designs on those dolphins and gave them mirrors, and they just twirled around and admired themselves, haha! It can be really hard to deliberately show people parts of yourself you don't like, or not think you're somehow a less desirable client because of your perceived flaws--and I don't always love the pics of my fat ass on instagram, ngl--but man, I am so glad I knuckled down and did it. I still get an upset stomach before my appointments, but it's so worth it.

Thanks, @Tornado6! I'm really excited to see how those reds look healed. I'd gone in having pretty much decided Not Red, so I said "I think I like the teal," and she said, "We gonna do red." So it's red. :D

We ended up going with red for the cord winding through my bats after all--a dark Brick red and one called Red Velvet. Got the last peony colored and about half the cord done, so I think just one more session to finish it all up, which I think will make eight en toto. I'll post a pic as soon as the bruising around the red ink doesn't look so dire. :D

@tay943 Originally, we were going to do teal because it is complementary--cool to go with the warm flowers. The bats are the point of the tattoo for me, as the flowers lose color over the years, the bats will still be center stage. I feel like the red (depending on what shade) would probably stand out about as much for me as the teal, overall. Thanks for all the thoughts, you guys! She's going to end up picking anyway--I'll just go with what she decides--but she always asks, and since before I started the tattoo I wasn't intending to get color at all, I usually just go "Uhhhh..." :D

Thanks @SeeSea. You're right, it's hard to tell from just that pic, but I was hoping the general color palette was visible enough--I'll see if I have a better one somewhere of the latest work, healed. One more hashmark for red! :D

@Breakme, violet is an interesting thought! The peonies are all either shades of pink, or that sort of tangerine/yellow/coral--just variations of what's on my shoulder there. @Gingerninja Thanks! Well, she's been talking about starting the cord soon, so depending on how long it takes to do the last peony, she might start filling it in next session. Though the last one is pretty much sitting entirely on my lower back, so I'm not sure how many hours I'll be doing that day.

Hey ladies (thread), I think my tattooer's going to do the remaining peony before the cord winding through, but we're still waffling on what color to do the cord. She'd originally planned on doing it a deep teal, but now she's thinking a nice dark red. Any other suggestions for colors we can talk about at the next session? :D

My artist freehanded the cord winding through the peonies on my back with a marker, and about two weeks later, that whole part of the outline became red and itchy and raised for a couple of weeks. No other part of the tattoo that had been done the same day with a stencil did that. She hasn't had to freehand anything since, since it's all shading and color we're doing now, so it hasn't happened again. ETA: that particular marker wasn't a Sharpie, fwiw.

Oh man, @sophistre, that's the first time I've seen your whole arm. I am a huge fan of the work you've been getting--colors, size, composition, all of it--and love seeing it all together!

I'm a hoarder of words, and gewgaw is one of those that just catches my eye every time I see it :) Yeah, when you search Art Deco tattoos, a lot of what comes up is actually Nouveau, which is why I slashed the two together, but I liked that cat one because I thought something like the curvier, but still graphic Egyptian Revival floral elements like that might still give you the cleaner feel you like from Deco, without the problem of keeping lines super straight on a wrapping body part. And yeah, the color palette is killer :)

I think @Tornado6 means Art Deco ornamentation? Check out some of Lars Uwe's work, @Tornado6, see if that gives you some ideas of how bold and feminine Deco/Nouveau-ish stuff can look: ETA: Since I see a lot of people posting their own tattoos, I just want to make sure it's clear the above image is not me. :)

So far, the lower back and spine are reliably:

My strategy is to play dead, like I'm being mauled by a tiny bear. So far it's working.

As much as I was dreading getting my butt done (The linework there sucked) it was a piece of cake after getting some color added to the leaves from last time. I don't know what it is about the damn leaves, but they always suuuuuuck. It was seriously a relief when she got started on my ass. Got one more peony to color--right on my lower back ~sob~--and then we get started on the decorative cord winding through.

Been loving some of front pieces from Matthew Houston at Salon Serpent. A couple of killer stomach rockers in there, too.

@graybones Thank you! They're based partly on Chinese depictions of lucky bats (also why there's five) which are very pretty and playful, for that very reason! I adore bats, and when I see them it makes me happy, but didn't want realism or the more angular, sharp look of a traditional Western depiction. I had also given my artist some Art Nouveau pieces in the giant file of inspiration, and she makes lovely peonies, so this is what happened. :) @DeathB4Decaf Is that Paul Freaking Bunyan? AMAZING either way.

Got my next appointment all set up for the second week in January. Looking forward to more work being done, not looking forward to *getting* it done :D Got the right side peonies worked on last time, they'll have brown added to the leaves in the future, and some lines on the petals.

Banana is another one of those latex cross-reactive fruits. I get itchy mouth when I eat avocado or banana. Which doesn't help you @ironchef, sorry. My hubs' skin gets irritated sometimes where clothing tags or linings touch him--those "no-tag" Hanes undershirts were the worst, because you can't cut those off--but usually as long as we use a dye and perfume-free detergent and softener, he's okay. It does flare up sometimes out of nowhere, though.