It’s been just over a year since I wrote my first new year plans post (strange that.. *cough*) and although there is much I didn’t fulfill, there is actually a lot that came to pass – which has left me pretty stoked. So, in the hopes of this coming somewhat of a tradition (for as long as it proves useful) I plan to kick the asses of a few things this year. But, before I get into the nitty gritty, I thought a bit of a retrospective introspective would be cool and that’s what this post will be all about.
If I’m going to be able to give a decent recap on 2011, I’m going to need to remind you (and myself somewhat) of all the things I planned to accomplish – so, here goes:
Alright – so quickly – there were a few that I didn’t put on – one of them to get a raise in my income (to a specific amount) – which I got, amazingly – it was quite unplanned, and just happened, so that was pretty awesome. The beginning of 2011 was actually quite tough. My sis got married, and the ex took me to maintenance caught all over the same weekend in March (well Saturday/Monday) and it all seriously freaked me out, added to this was the possibility of losing my job, and working HARD right through Christmas to push out a new web-application for our work also by March (which we did in Snaply.com). – so by the third month, I was a bit (quite a lot) of a wreck.
But then it all started turning around. A little slowly at first, but I got a new job – as mentioned, the divorce proceedings moved along and we managed to come to agreement (should go through in the next month or 2), and well, I managed to achieve at least some of my goals.
So, the divorce thing I think I’ve covered. It’s been 2 years – 2010 was TOUGH, 2011 I think I came to terms with it, and really was a year of recouping and regrouping. As I said, we’re not officially there -yet- but we’re both happy with our agreement, so it’s really just a matter of signing and submitting and we should be done. phew.
I’ve been wanting a new tat for a while now, and although I didn’t really know what, I spent most of last year with it in the back of my head. I had initially wanted Nick Smal to do it for me, but he got too busy – so maybe this year he’ll be able to do me one – but in September, I ended up – thanks to Katy’s recommendation – going to Tyler Murphy from Sins of Style. I didn’t get the Phoenix idea I mentioned – although I’m planing that one for this year as a full sleeve (pretty excited for it) – and will probably get Tyler to do it as well.
For the longest time I’ve wanted ‘Faith Hope and Love’ tattooed on me somewhere. I was actually aiming to get it done as my previous tattoo – but thankfully I didn’t, because the design was shit, and the tat I got (~beloved~ on my chest) didn’t come out that fantastically.
So, when I was trying to figure what to get last year and I’d decided to only get the Phoenix after the divorce is through, I remembered my FHL idea. So I took Tyler a pic of the very cool script on the cover of Maylene and the Sons of Disaster’s second album – “ii”.
The drawing took close on 3 hours – starting with a free-hand maker drawing which he refined until I was happy with the general look an
d feel and placement.
After that he transferred it to paper, and started drawing out the words, reiterating until I was happy. Then he re-traced that onto my skin and the outline started. Having got there around 2, it was now close to 5pm, so we just had time for the lines, which took probably just over an hour.
The next step was letting it heal, and I went home very proud, but almost not being able to wait for the colouring process – my head spinning with ideas – should I leave it black and white, or super-coloured, with gradients flowing blues, greens, oranges, yellows and red. But I had almost 2 months to wait, the next booking available was only on 10 December. I think the wait was good, as it helped me get the cash together – and settle on a gray-scale gradient for the ‘colouring’.
After waiting around about the Saturday morning I went to finish it all off, I settled down for the long haul as I lay back on the psychologist/tattoo couch and Tyler started doing his thing. It took just over 2 1/2 hours to complete, with a few 2-3 minute breaks thrown in here and there, and quite a few times where I thought (but never said) “please can we rather carry on with this tomorrow, it hurts,” but overall it really wasn’t too bad, and it was so very much worth the pain!
I honestly can’t wait for my next one – and am already dreaming up something to get at this year’s Southern Ink Exposure.. ha! but the next big one will be the sleeve for sure! – And Tyler’s definitely the guy I’m getting to do it – he’s stuff is tight! and he’s damn good at what he does – I’m seriously impressed!
…that’s it so far. I’ll continue with the wins and misses soon! (continued here)
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