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.
Bonjour my fellow bloggers and welcome to “Frankii loves Vintage” my personal vintage inspired blog. I am a rock and roll girl at heart and am fortunate to live my life surrounded by fabulous vintage clothes, handbags and homeware – my lovely flatmate Sam has inspired me to write a blog of my own sharing my goodies with the world.
Today I am going to simply tell you a bit about me. I am a plus-size girl and have found 1950’s dresses lend themselves to ladies with curves! Personally I love the rockabilly fashion and try to mould myself to look every inch the rock and roll queen. Inspired by the timeless pin-ups such as Betty Page and Marilyn Monroe I paint my nails red, make my hair red and flick my eyeliner like a lady. Unlike Marilyn, I have rockabilly inspired tattoos including a swallow, rose and most recently a leopard print anchor on my wrist. I love having my own unique style and dressing to flatter my figure is an added plus.
Yesterday I wore a white linen 1950’s inspired dress from Marks and Spencer. I got several compliments on my dress and everyone thought it was authentic! I have collected vintage clothing for around five years now and it is difficult to get the genuine articles in larger sizes (I wear a UK16-20) so it is brilliant to be able to buy good ‘copies’ on the highstreet. I got my Marks and Sparks dress in the Per Una sale for £29.00 ( it doesn’t really get more of a bargain than that! In normal circumstances I would have worn the dress with wedge heels to lengthen my legs and hide my chubby ankles (I am a tall girl but have chunky legs!) but Hastings is full of hills so I wore it with my moccasin pumps.
My trip to Hastings was to rummage through the dozens of retro shops that are based in the Old Town. I love shopping in Hastings because you never know what treat you are going to find. I went with my fiance, Scott, and my mum. Scott loves everything 1950’s from the clothing to the music, and secretly wishes he was Johnny Cash. From wearing the bowling shirts to Brylcreem-ing his hair, my man is head to toe stuck in a 50’s time warp and I wouldn’t have him any other way! He has been after some more jeans in a while, he’s been oo-and-arring over some Freddie’s jeans for a while, but only knows online stockists and did not want to risk them being the wrong size with the hassle of having to send them back, so he was chuffed when he discovered a shop that sold Prison Blue jeans. Shipped over from the USA, direct from Oregan Prison where inmates make them, it is their own choice to make the clothing and there is a three-year waiting list for those wanting to join the production line, these jeans are made from heavy durable material and are cut in the classic americana fifties design, Scott brought the classic shape in the dark blue colour – he considered the black pair, but to be honest they look the same as Levi 501’s and aren’t as “rock and roll”.
Buy your man a pair from the High Street Retro Centre, Hastings or online from http://www.rockersengland.co.uk
Everyday I will share another plus-size vintage dress I have found, or a unique accessory or piece of homeware that I think is amazing. I might simple post a classic song that I’ve got in my head that day, I will try to post something new everyday.
This is a simple welcome post and tomorrow I will have something more exciting to say. For the meanwhile check out the M&S website, it’s an unusual place to look for retro fashions but I found my glorious goodie there this week so you might just find one too.
Made for you with love,
Frankii Silver
xxx
Frankii Loves Vintage 