Every time a bell rings...
Mar. 16th, 2007 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missroseroseFor much of my life, I've given some thought to getting a tattoo; I guess it's something that I always assumed I'd do at one point or another. What's stopped me so far is two aspects: number one, I haven't felt that it's the right time in my life; and number two, I haven't really found a design that I really like. There are lots of cool picture-type tattoos out there, but the vast majority of pictures don't really have much meaning for me - sure, they look cool, but if I wanted a picture I could just as easily get a print of one and hang it on the wall. So I guess I've always figured on whatever tattoo I get being more a part of my body rather than just a permanent sticker, as it were. Something that feels to me like it works with my body and enhances it, instead of being just a decoration. (Does that make any sense?)
I still don't feel like now is the time, and it probably won't be for another year or three, but I think I've at least found the concept that I'm going to want: Wings!
As the article talks about, people get wing tattoos for lots of reasons, and as the pictures show, there's a lot of variation on the theme - from giant dark gothic angel wings to detailed colorful butterfly wings to more tribal-esque or Celtic stylized designs to small childlike scrawls, and lots of other types besides. Apparently wing tattoos have become pretty popular in the last decade or two, so some people feel like they're just trendy, but I have to say I really like the way they can work with a person's natural body shape to enhance the curves and angles of their back. My favorite example is here, which also corresponds to the type of design that I'm most interested in - complementary to body shape, semi-realistic but not too heavy or detailed.
While I really like the idea, however, I'm in no rush to actually go through with this. For one thing, all the designs I've really liked are fairly large whole-back type deals. (I guess I've never been one for doing things small - if I'm going to make a statement, why bother being quiet with it?) I don't have any particular problem with the idea of a full-back design, but I've never had any sort of tattoo before and I really don't know how I'll react. I've always been a bit of a pain wuss, to be honest. Which is probably part of why I find the idea attractive - it's a way of confronting one of my fears that has a pretty cool trophy at the end.
For another, I don't yet know what design I want. There are lots of cool wing designs out there, but the whole point of getting a tattoo is to find something original that has meaning to you - after all, you're putting something permanent on your skin that makes your body that much more unique and identifiable. So why do it if you're just going to copy someone else's design? (I particularly like this set because it shows how you can take a relatively common concept and add in a new detail to make it unique.)
Something else I've been thinking about is my own personal feelings on the matter. I'm not yet sure exactly how or why, and I might not even know until after the fact, but I feel like I need to accomplish something important before it'll be the right time. Part of that goes back to the unique-and-meaningful concept, and I think part of it is the idea of a tattoo as a marker of a transition from one part of life to another (which is a concept dating back thousands of years). And some of it probably has to do with the tattoo concept itself - I feel like I need to earn my wings.
Finally, there's a pretty good reason to hold off for now - removable tattoo ink. I've read a bunch of different information on the stuff, and as near as I can tell, the way it works is this: the ink is made from vegetable and other biodegradable dyes normally eschewed for tattoos because of their ease of absorption by the body. To counteract this, the ink is encapsulated in tiny (1-3 micron) beads, made of a polymer that is non-biodegradable and therefore won't be absorbed (hence the permanence). If you need or want to get rid of the tattoo, however, you can go in for one laser treatment (as opposed to the five to ten treatments a normal tattoo takes); the energy from the laser bursts open the capsules, and the dyes are broken down and absorbed by the body over a period of a month or so.
While I'd like to think that any tattoo I'd get would be one I wouldn't need or want to remove, the fact is that I don't know what will happen in the next twenty or thirty years, and I might find myself in a position where removal would be necessary. So I really like the idea of a permanent yet removable dye, especially for something this large and dramatic. However, said dye is only being introduced on the market this year, so I think it'd be a good plan to wait a couple years and see how it works on a longer time scale - whether it's more prone to fading, for instance, or if people have adverse reactions.
I guess I'll just keep the idea on the back burner and see what happens over the next couple years...
I still don't feel like now is the time, and it probably won't be for another year or three, but I think I've at least found the concept that I'm going to want: Wings!
As the article talks about, people get wing tattoos for lots of reasons, and as the pictures show, there's a lot of variation on the theme - from giant dark gothic angel wings to detailed colorful butterfly wings to more tribal-esque or Celtic stylized designs to small childlike scrawls, and lots of other types besides. Apparently wing tattoos have become pretty popular in the last decade or two, so some people feel like they're just trendy, but I have to say I really like the way they can work with a person's natural body shape to enhance the curves and angles of their back. My favorite example is here, which also corresponds to the type of design that I'm most interested in - complementary to body shape, semi-realistic but not too heavy or detailed.
While I really like the idea, however, I'm in no rush to actually go through with this. For one thing, all the designs I've really liked are fairly large whole-back type deals. (I guess I've never been one for doing things small - if I'm going to make a statement, why bother being quiet with it?) I don't have any particular problem with the idea of a full-back design, but I've never had any sort of tattoo before and I really don't know how I'll react. I've always been a bit of a pain wuss, to be honest. Which is probably part of why I find the idea attractive - it's a way of confronting one of my fears that has a pretty cool trophy at the end.
For another, I don't yet know what design I want. There are lots of cool wing designs out there, but the whole point of getting a tattoo is to find something original that has meaning to you - after all, you're putting something permanent on your skin that makes your body that much more unique and identifiable. So why do it if you're just going to copy someone else's design? (I particularly like this set because it shows how you can take a relatively common concept and add in a new detail to make it unique.)
Something else I've been thinking about is my own personal feelings on the matter. I'm not yet sure exactly how or why, and I might not even know until after the fact, but I feel like I need to accomplish something important before it'll be the right time. Part of that goes back to the unique-and-meaningful concept, and I think part of it is the idea of a tattoo as a marker of a transition from one part of life to another (which is a concept dating back thousands of years). And some of it probably has to do with the tattoo concept itself - I feel like I need to earn my wings.
Finally, there's a pretty good reason to hold off for now - removable tattoo ink. I've read a bunch of different information on the stuff, and as near as I can tell, the way it works is this: the ink is made from vegetable and other biodegradable dyes normally eschewed for tattoos because of their ease of absorption by the body. To counteract this, the ink is encapsulated in tiny (1-3 micron) beads, made of a polymer that is non-biodegradable and therefore won't be absorbed (hence the permanence). If you need or want to get rid of the tattoo, however, you can go in for one laser treatment (as opposed to the five to ten treatments a normal tattoo takes); the energy from the laser bursts open the capsules, and the dyes are broken down and absorbed by the body over a period of a month or so.
While I'd like to think that any tattoo I'd get would be one I wouldn't need or want to remove, the fact is that I don't know what will happen in the next twenty or thirty years, and I might find myself in a position where removal would be necessary. So I really like the idea of a permanent yet removable dye, especially for something this large and dramatic. However, said dye is only being introduced on the market this year, so I think it'd be a good plan to wait a couple years and see how it works on a longer time scale - whether it's more prone to fading, for instance, or if people have adverse reactions.
I guess I'll just keep the idea on the back burner and see what happens over the next couple years...
