On Saturday I have what I hope will be my final tattoo appointment for the blue flowers I’ve been getting inked on my arm. If I hold out long enough and don’t tap out, it can be the last session. If it is, and even if it isn’t, I have a gift for my artist. He’s done such an amazing job taking my vision of blue flowers going up my arm and making it a true work of art.
I’ve been leaving him very generous tips each session, but with us nearing the finish line with this tattoo, I decided to make something to give him for a final tip (in addition to money).
He and I have done a lot of chatting during these sessions. Everything from conspiracy theories to having to give his dogs away because he moved into a haunted house to his love of all things Mafia, including the Sopranos, because his dad was one of them, to his past life as a graffiti artist.
This last session was when he presented his TedTalk on his collection of vintage spray paint cans. Apparently there is a whole subculture of people who collect these cans. It doesn’t matter if there’s still paint in the can because you can’t get the paint out anyway. He explained that the holy grail for collectors is the color Icy Grape that Krylon came out with in the late 70s/early 80s. According to him, a can of Icy Grape is so coveted because prior to its release, Krylon didn’t have purple in their lineup of colors. Then came Icy Grape. But only for a short period of time. It was discontinued and then a whole variety of shades of purple became available. He told me that even if he could find one for sale, it would cost more than he would be willing to spend on a spray paint can. Google tells me that would be around 700 dollars.
He has about 200 cans in his collection and was even planning a trip to New Jersey to buy a couple from a collector he found up there. Icy Grape is obviously not a part of his collection. So, given that my not-so-hidden talent is making fun things with yarn, I decided to make him a yarn version of an Icy Grape Krylon can.
I took this inspiration picture from Google:
And turned it into this:
I see at least seven things that I would fix if I was going to make this again. But hopefully he won’t notice. Or will be too nice to point them out. Just like I hesitated to point out the misspelled word on his tattoo trophy because I didn’t want to be rude the first time I noticed it.
I posted this on Threads last night and SO many tattoo artists commented that they would love to get a gift like this. Someone commented that it was me giving my art to my artist and how cool that is. The best comment of all though was this one:
All I can say is, I hope he likes it. I think he will.
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