May 4, 20227 min read

Sleeves are Overrated - Wait, I Want One

My Tattoo Journey – part 3

Recap

It's been a while, so here is a quick recap. I started getting tattoos immediately upon joining the Navy and I was obsessed with getting more. While I traveled for my training in the military, I got tattoos in every state and had a short-live idea to get a tattoo in every state. After a while of just getting the designs that were available "on the wall", I turned to considering more personal artwork.

The Decision

Just a few short years later, after we moved to Virginia, I got the tattoo bug once again. My problem was I didn’t many open spots on my body – that were visible anyways. I had stopped wearing shorts and little shirts long ago. The more I thought about what I wanted; I knew I needed a decent area of my body to fit what I was thinking.

Now up until this point I had been against getting a sleeve on myself. I just thought they were messy and unattractive. Most sleeves I had seen looked like a big dark mess. As I thought it through, I was determined not to let my sleeve be a dark mess.

As I was letting the idea of a sleeve sink in, I began looking at tattoo parlors. Thanks to the internet, I was able to search online and find places nearby without leaving my house. I could check out an artist and view their portfolio and follow them on Instagram. I could see what they tattooed a year or more ago (what they chose to have in their portfolio) and also what they just did a week or so ago (thanks Instagram!)

I probably looked at ten different tattoo shops. Finally, I found a place that had

multiple artists that I liked. I made a call to the shop and made an arrangement meet with an artist.

I wrote a letter introducing myself, what I wanted, and why. I included a bunch of reference photos for what I was inspired by. The artist I started with scheduled a session (on my Birthday!) and she began working on a design. What I didn’t realize was that she was working on the design piecemeal – each one just before the upcoming session.

Left Arm Sleeve - Number 16 to 28

My first tattoo would be on May 7, 2018, and it would be Christmas before I could say it was fully healed.

My initial inspiration was space – I wanted space to be a themed background throughout. Next, I really wanted to have a word in graffiti art – I have always been fascinated by graffiti art. The first thing I wanted to add was the Hanged Man from Tarot. I wanted a Yin/Yang, and my astrology symbol. And since I had a space-theme, I was hoping to fit the sun and moon in there.

Number 16 - "Hanged Man"

Since I already have the "Fool" on my back and that symbolized the beginning of my adult life, I felt like the "Hanged Man" symbolized a part of my life now. One of my first Tarot decks was the Londa Tarot, who’s characters are reminiscent to elves of a certain nature, and I have had a particular fondness for them.

If you know anything about Tarot, in some decks, the Hanged Man is, well, hung from a rope – which is the case for the Londa Tarot. I could not in good conscience have that on my arm in full view. So, the artist combined several Tarot cards (also to make it more feminine) to have the character hanging from the knees. This character was so skillfully applied, it looks like the above gargoyle is holding her!

Number 17 - Graffiti “Resolve”

My next session was my favorite tattoo but one of my least favorite sits. She did a lot of layers, meaning a lot of wiping. I had to sit with my arm twisted in a weird way so she could get to my outer forearm. The pain during the tattooing really sucked!

This is not just a ho-hum area, like you arm. It really hurts! And it took about 3 hours to tattoo that. And I was in it! I did NOT need a break. I could take the pain! Even if I was holding my breathe each time, she applied the needle and I had to psych myself up for the pain each time. Fuck that! I could handle this!

Yeah, well I was such a ‘tough gal’ that I was sick later that night. Nice one. Apparently, you really do need to take breaks and drink and eat and such while you are getting tattooed. You are not cool for ‘taking the pain’ – just stupid. Oops.

But this is almost my favorite tattoo!!! One thing that sucks. I can’t see it very easily :(

Oh yeah, she updated my 20-year-old ‘S-7’ tattoo on my forearm, in about 30 minutes. Uh, looks better than it ever did!

Number 18 - “AL” Symbol

At some point I decided I wanted to include an element to symbolize my adopted father, the only man before my husband who truly protected me and loved me for who I am. It was a difficult task because he was not so sentimental, the only jewelry type thing he got me had a snake that he thought I would like – I did not.

He was also a very rigid man, in his thinking, in the way he did things. He was very methodical. So I set out on a search for something structured that spoke to me. The design I chose, also included his first name if you look close enough.

When I look at it and think about what I did to get there and how I thought about him reminds me of him and some of the awesome things he was always doing. Even though this is a small element, it evokes a lot of emotion in me every time I look at it. Forever missed.

After this session, which was already cut short, the next session was cancelled at the last minute. I was trying to complete my sleeve by the end of the year, so I asked the artist if she minded if I ask for a different artist to complete my work. She was very understanding and recommended someone who she knew in the shop.

Number 19 - Yin/Yang Sun/Moon

Since this was our first session together, we started small. James Rivera tattooed a yin/yang sun/moon on my inner bicep. We then discussed the plan for the remainder of the sleeve and my desire to be finished by the end of the year.

Oh! And I learned what a small world it is. I found out that he and I had been in Florida at the same school around the same time. We hung out at the same restaurants, same movie theater, but we never ran into each other. Of course, our lives took very different paths, but I thought it was cool that for an instant we were in each other’s orbits.

Number 20 - “Resolute” backward

Number 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 - Infinity Stones – Six color space designs

Number 27 - Taurus sign negative space

Number 28 - “S” letter negative space

OK, this one was brutal, and it was like a force of wills. James knew that I wanted to get the tattoo done as quickly as possible. Somehow, I thought that this may be one of the last sessions.

Silly me.

But James also did not really let me in on his knowledge that all of this was going to take about 16 hours of work. So, he just kept going and going and going….until I couldn’t take the pain anymore and cried uncle. That’s when he admitted he was waiting for me to call it. He also said I lasted a lot longer than most people.

First, he did the “Resolute” backwards writing on my outer forearm. Then starting just above my hand, he started (what I didn’t realize was) the first coat of the six-color space sections, each with an infinity stone. When he got to the back of my upper arm, he did the “S” in negative space. On the inner crook of my arm, he did a negative space of the Taurus sign.

That heal was a tough one because the ENTIRE arm was on FIRE! I couldn’t set me arm any which way without causing pain, so sleep for the next couple of days was tough. I mentally kicked myself (again) for being an idiot and promised myself that I would not sit for that many hours again.

After this tattoo I was a bit burnt out and ready to complete my sleeve. I was not getting another tattoo for a good long while after this!! (Yeah, right)

The next session, a month later, was a second and final coat to one part of the space scene. We took it easy instead of trying to get the entire piece finished. With just one session to go, I was really excited with my tattoo so far!

Side Note: As you might see in the picture, the scene on my forearm has a lot of white and during the healing process got a little irritated. This had never happened to me before. The tattoo shop was great in addressing my concerns and recommended I use Aquafina instead of the Bacitracin that I had become accustomed to. Now I only use Aquafina, or its generic.

Finally, less than four weeks later James was applying the final coat to my upper arm. And just like that I thought I was done with this sleeve. I took many pictures because I knew I wanted to document each step in the process. I was trying to make up for the lack documenting on most of my early tattoos.

And so I made a book, thanks to all the awesome apps out there that let you manipulate photos, create anything you want including a ‘comic-book’ like set up. And of course, Shutterfly made the book print possible, as well as magnets.

This is the closing page to the book, showing my completed sleeve as best I can.

And so…I was happy to show off my arm to the world. No more tattoos for a while…

Actually…I wasn’t done, not by a long shot. But this sleeve wasn’t done either. A couple months into the new year, I saw some pictures of myself, and I thought my shoulder looked weird with nothing going on.

So….

I had to get a tattoo! HA-HA-HA*evil laugh

Left Shoulder - Number 29

In April 2019, James tattooed a dragon in space holding a Super-Mario Brothers’ power-up mushroom (the one that make you SUPER BIG). The dragon has rainbow wings to show my support.

Boom-Boom is a permanent photo-bomb because he is my favorite Mario Bro. character. Boom-Boom just wants to do what he knows – he is just misunderstood; he is not really a bad guy.

I’m going to stop here for now. You will have to come back for the rest of the story…