An amusement

[pecunium]

I am pondering a tattoo. Not the idea, per se of getting one. That's never been a thing I despised, but rather a problem of resolve; which depended on being certain the art both said something, and spoke well to me (symbols have power, and a tatto is permanent; the effect on me would not be trivial), and was something which was neither trite/clicéd, nor transitory/trivial.

I think I have found one. I'll be searching out a mendhi artist to translate it to a test piece (it's Haida inspired so plain black will work; probably better than trying to get it in red/black, or blue/black).

But in the course of research I found this.

Totemic animal survey

It's open for one month, or 20 responses.

Have at.

Comments

[athenais.livejournal.com]

My Tlingit orcas are one of my totem animals. The tattoos are now twenty-five years old. Not one moment of regret, ever.

[georgiamagnolia.livejournal.com]

I am a bit handicapped in that I don't know you, only what you write here and the beautiful pictures you post, so I would have to choose only based on that. But I will add that both of my tattoos are spiritual in meaning and have animals in them, they have a great deal of meaning for me and remind me of things I sometimes forget. I value them very much and find them helpful in lots of ways. I do think that spiritually inspired tattoos are best, but I am biased. Good luck with whatever you choose.

(the icon is my thunderbird, though only a picture, not my actual tattoo, I don't have pictures of my tattoos, weirdly enough, don't know what's up with that)

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

I recently got my first tattoo. For years I thought I knew what I wanted, but it turned out I wanted something completely different. Luckily, I figured it out before I actually GOT it. But the dandelion had so much meaning for me, and I overlooked it all that time. Good luck, and have you found an artist yet? The artist had a vision slightly different than mine, but as we discussed it, inside my head was going "yes, YES" and made so much more sense...

[redbird]

The waiting and contemplation make sense to me. Part of why I chose this as my first tattoo (I didn't know at the time that there would be more) is that cardinals are here in the northeast year-round, color and song in the mostly gray woods of winter.

The coelacanth also speaks to permanence, in a different way.

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

They are beautiful - both the animals and your tattoos!

[trinker.livejournal.com]

A note about henna - the places on your body that take henna best are precisely those places where tattoos don't go. Generally, anyway. Palms and soles, tops of feet and backs of hands. Traditional tattoo places like upper arms and backs and calves often don't take henna well.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Oh, and *please* do be careful about the henna used. There are unscrupulous or ignorant henna artists out there using toxic chemicals. Please feel free to e-mail me for more henna info - trinker at ymail dot com.

[texaslawchick.livejournal.com]

I waited for at least five years for both my tattoos. The first is the sun from my family crest on my lower back. The second is a lightning bolt wrapped in smoke for my dog who died a year and a half ago. It's on my right hip.

I love the artist that worked on my right hip. He's done four of my boyfriend's tattoos and is working on a fifth right now. I had talked to another artist about the lightning bolt, and she didn't really get the concept as well. I sent Gabe an image that I kind of wanted the lightning bolt to look like, described what I wanted for the rest of the tattoo and he sent me back a sketch. It turned out to be even better than I envisioned.

Your artist is going to be as important, if not more so, as the image. Take a look at a lot of books. Ask people whose tattoos you like where they got their tattoos. Do not make your artist decision based on price.

My next tattoo will be a difficult one to pull off and I'm still looking for an artist to do it. I want to have a field of fireworks under the lightning bolt. When I described what I wanted to Gabe, he said he wasn't really the guy to do it, which made me appreciate him as a tattoo artist even more. I've been pouring through portfolios all over the place, and I would LOVE to get Michelle Wortman to do it for me. Maybe when I'm ready, I'll travel to her to get it.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I have an artist I intend to speak to. She is very good at the sort of blackwork I want to have done, and I know of someone who has worked with her on his tattoo, and the final result was different from what he'd first thought, but it's very much what he wants.

It took several sessions working out the cartoon before she was willing to put ink to skin.

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

Where are you thinking of getting it placed? I've been thinking of getting a fourth tattoo, but have not really thought of something that i would be willing to commit to....

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

On my right shoulder, just in the edge of my vision.

A raven on my shoulder. There is a lot of layered symbolism in the idea, which is in keeping with the way I do that sort of thing.