Let me tell you a little about my tattoos…
(I apologise for the quality of the photos in advance)
I am the biggest wimp you will -ever- meet, I hate pain and have no tolerance even for the smallest scratch so how I manage to get inked is beyond me. From what my fiance and friends tell me I am not a lady sat in that dreaded chair, apparently I swear like a sailor and hate the tattooist – I don’t remember any of this, because when I look at my stunning new piece of art all the soreness disappears.
I only have four tattoo’s so far, I will get more, I have plans for 4 more already and when I have the money I will get them.
I got my first tattoo when I was 17, I was underage and went alone to the tattooist. I was tattooed by a lovely female artist who was really nice to me but the silly cow didn’t ID me. I now feel irresponsible getting something permanent on my body at such a young age with no real consideration for what I was doing to myself. Luckily I chose my swallow, I still love this tattoo and it will always be my favourite. I am getting bored with people asking if it is the Jack Sparrow tattoo – it’s not! I would love to tell you a long elaborate tale of how I got a swallow because it meant something important to me and has some great hidden meaning but it doesn’t – I love swallow tattoo’s and I love linear ink.
I got my second tattoo when I was 18 and off-age. It is a swallow on my right wrist, it’s a bright blue butterfly positioned so it appears to fly away from me. I love butterfly’s – to me they suggest freedom and beauty. I didn’t over plan this tattoo, I decided I wanted a butterfly on my wrist, found a photograph of a beautiful insect, and then got an incredibly talented tattooist to put it on me. Phil from Second Skin in Aldershot got a right ear full from me when he told me that I would have to go bigger with the butterfly unless I wanted him to do it with a single needle – I decided that I wanted it small so had it done with the single needle. Even though it is only 1″ x 1″ the tattoo took 2 hours and was agony!
My third tattoo was a mistake, and I recently had it covered up. My fourth tattoo is a large rose on my left shoulder. I had this tattoo whilst I was at University in Scarborough by a wicked guy at Kind Arthur’s Tattoo studio. Id seen a guy around campus with a beautiful rose tattooed on his arm, and stopped him one day to find out when he’d had it done – that is how I came across Stu. I had to wait weeks before I could get my appointment. When I turned up at the studio I was shown no drawing to pre-approve and was slightly horrified when I sat down and just had circles drawn on my shoulder with a few sketchy petals, but I had seen Stu’s previous tattoos and fully trusted him. My rose is for my Grandmother, she loved roses and I am sure she would hate my tattoo’s but I like having a symbol of her looking out for my back.
I got my last tattoo last month and it is still healing. It is a leopard print tattoo on my left wrist and it was a cover up to a small anchor I had done in a moment of madness once. Where the tattoo was over already scarred skin I developed slight scar tissue, but this has started to heal and I am chuffed. I wanted leopard print on my body, everyone who knows me will say that I love leopard print, six out of seven days I am wearing something animal printed and it felt right to have it on my body. I wanted an anchor because my dad is a fisherman and I wanted something to make me think of him on me. The japanese waves are simply there because I think they are pretty.
My arm is looking rather unbalanced so I am planning to have other nautical themed ink to make a half sleeve on my lower arm. I am thinking of involving some more waves, maybe a sailor lady sat on a compass (Sam suggested that one), and some nautical stars would be cool. I am not very artistic though so I will present the idea to my current tattooist and see what he thinks would sit nicely with the rest of my work.
I might wait until after my wedding though, although I love being an illustrated lady I need to be saving my money for that big day. If only tattoo’s were free, I would be one happy girlie.
Frankii Loves Vintage 