“Why the tattoos all of a sudden?”
That’s what my sister asked me the other day. I was telling her about my next tattoo appointment (which was yesterday). This appointment was made last Saturday and was also made a little more than a month since the final appointment for the blue flower arm piece I had done. I went on to tell her about what I’m going to get next after this appointment.
That’s when she asked me the question about the reason for all these tattoos.
Anyone who has tattoos knows that you don’t ever stop at just one. It hurts like hell but you keep going back for more.
I already had 9 or 10 small-ish tattoos before I started this tattoo blitz. And I already knew that I wanted to fill in my arm where I already had a heart and the word “love” placed. Once I got the idea for the blue flowers, I went with it. Then I saw how good I felt showing off an arm half full of colored art and I really wanted more.
That’s when the ideas and plans really got rolling. I knew that I eventually wanted another big arm full of flowers on my other arm, but down on my forearm, below my elbow. These flowers were going to look like they were knitted. All my other tattoos say something about me…hobbies, favorite colors, favorite animals, etc. I don’t yet have one that is yarn related. However, I couldn’t fathom getting another big piece done without first fixing the goldfish on my chest that had seriously faded over the 20 years that it was inked on there. So I got him touched up, a little bit covered up, and enhanced at my appointment yesterday.
So I know what I want and I know I want them sooner rather than later. But as my sister asked, why? And why do I want these tattoos in highly visible places? I want the knitted flowers down on my forearm where only long sleeves will cover it up. I’m almost a little sad that soon the weather will be too cool for me to keep wearing tank tops that show off all of my blue flowers on my upper arm. So again, why the need for so many tattoos and in places that are easily seen?
As the title of my post implies, it’s simply because I can. I’ve always loved tattoos. I love how awesome and bad ass women look who have a lot of them. But until now, I’ve worked at a job where I had to keep most of them covered. There was never an official handbook rule about teachers/employees and showing tattoos. I even asked my principal one time about it (on our end of the year surveys) and she never got back to me with an answer. She had one on her shoulder and I assumed that if I showed a little bit of my ink, it wasn’t a big deal. But I felt like exposing too much would perhaps be an issue. (Though, when the sisters worked at my school—one was also the principal—I kept my ankle tattoo wrapped in a gauze bandage to keep it from being seen. I knew the principal then would definitely have an issue with it). So I never pushed it. And actually, for many years I didn’t think realistically about getting any others. I knew I wanted the ‘love’ tattoo eventually and something knitting related, but that was way in the future and I never even looked through Pinterest or other places for inspiration pictures.
So now that I work in a place where I don’t feel the need to keep anything covered up (ink wise that is), I feel free to ‘collect art’ on my skin as much as I want and on whatever exposed part of my body as I want. Collecting art is how the tattoo artists on Threads refer to it and I love that description.
This is, again, part of my journey to becoming the woman I’ve always wanted to be. I certainly don’t want to have more tattoos than I do bare skin, but I do want to have enough to make me feel good in my own skin. And showing off pretty artwork on my skin makes me feel good. So, because I have the means, and I have a fairly high pain tolerance, and a job that doesn’t inhibit what I show, I’m getting them. In other words, because I can.
P.S. Here’s the latest addition to my “gallery”:
Leave a Reply