TAT. ME. UP.

I think that my love of tattoos is going to keep me poor. I only have three right now: fish, Polish folk art flower ... thingy, and Wonder Woman. And I keep coming up with ideas for more. It's an addiction, you guys.* I'm jonesing. BAD. And I can't pick which one of my ideas to go with. It's like "Sophie's Choice." But without the kid dying.


The simple ones:


1) "Big Hungry Bear" - I read this book as a child and I want an image from one of the last pages (that I can't find on the internet ANYWHERE) where [SPOILER ALERT]the mouse is sharing the strawberry with the reader.
2) A hummingbird sipping out of a lilac - this is to honor both of my grandmothers.
3) A Major's insignia - both of my parents were Majors in the Air Force.
4) A simple black cross - I want this on the top of my right foot.
5) A henna design on my left foot - I haven't completely thought this one through, since I don't know which design I actually want. Sigh.
6) Purple lightsaber on the interior of my right pointer finger - this just goes without saying. 
7) A combination of my Big Three zodiac signs: Picses (rising), Sagittarius (sun), Gemini (moon). 
8) Pig (I was born in the Year of the Pig) - like this:

9) Llama - Seriously, my favorite animal on the planet. I wonder if I can find the awesome llama/alpaca artwork I was going to use as a reference. Hmmmmm.
10) "Remember Where You Came From" - A quote from both of my parents every time I'd go some place, be it a friend's house, college, down to the damned grocery store. I think it's better than my mom's attempt at coining, "Don't do drugs or have sex!"
11) A phoenix - it just kind of is my symbol. How many times have I crashed and burned and come out stronger? God knows. My mom probably does, too.


I know there are more of these, but that list is on my stupid, dead computer. Sigh. I'm going to have to start using Google Docs more.


And ... now for the big one:


I'll be getting a half-sleeve on my left arm that's going to be all about my spirituality. It's going to incorporate my Christian, Buddhist, and Wiccan beliefs**. This whole thing is going to be A Process because I'm still not entirely sure what exactly I want in it. I do know that Durga is going to be the centerpiece:

This kickass bitch said some of my favorite lines from Indian literature: "Roar with delight while you still can, O illiterate demon, because when I kill you, the gods themselves will roar with delight." 

In some iconography of Durga, she's sitting on a lotus flower. Now, I like lotuses. I love what they stand for, but you know what, I want Durga to sit on a damned magnolia (my favorite flower).
Anyway, I'm going to have to look up images of iconography and then sit down with a tattoo artist to come up with the design. Come up with a way to seamlessly integrate everything. It's going to be some work.


And the moral of this story is tattoos make you poor because you will always want more.


* This is why I don't gamble. Seriously.
** I told you my spiritual leanings were REALLY hard to explain. Here's how I usually explain it: I'm a follower of Christ, who just happens to view nature as my church and study Buddhist texts. It's actually a lot more complicated than that, but it's just easier to leave it at that.