Well I finally went and did it. At this relatively late point in my life, I went and got me a tattoo. Not that this was a sudden idea or as some may suspect a manifestation of a midlife crisis. Rather, it was the inevitable end result of a long chain of events, thoughts and desires. I would like to avoid making this post some kind of explanation about why I got it or what it means to me, but that may not be possible. I decided a while ago that there is no point in explaining why I did it. Either you get it or you don't, there's no point in my trying to make sense of it for you.

I would like to apologize for not including a picture yet, but I didn't get a picture when it was fresh and at the moment, 5 days after getting it, it looks like ass (flaky, peely, scabby). I'll amend this post with an image once it's looking pretty.

As for the imagery, if you want to try to picture it, the image takes up the majority of my upper left arm (but doesn't yet wrap around the inside -that's for later :D) and is essentially in the all-black tribal style, but in terms of form, it is made up of La Tene Celtic spiral motifs. I was going for something non-figurative because that has been the key to the great design problem I had to solve. I'm a professional artist that deals with non-abstract imagery , the idea of making a tattoo out of some kind of representational art really gave me a problem. I know that any image I would have designed would have had some glaring error that I only would have found a year later. So after all these years of trying to figure out what I wanted on me forever, I finally realized that I could go with something purely graphic and decorative. The design also appeals to me because it has such deep roots in history, it comes from Bronze and Iron Age imagery. The oldest extant example of tattooing comes from a Bronze Age Scythian chieftain whose body was preserved by ice and thus his tattoos survived to be discovered centuries later. Although my tattoo is not a copy, or even derived from his, you could say that it comes from the same "school". In fact, I'm beginning to think about adding one of the animal style motifs found on him to myself at a later date and it would blend seamlessly with what I have.

As with most things I do, I never start small. I usually end up attempting something that had I known better, might have hesitated to try. The artist -)Stacy McCleaf of Chrome Gardens in Gettysburg, PA ) even said "You were like working on a seasoned vet...not too many people can walk around saying something that big was their first tattoo, non the less they did it in one session." That one session was 3.5 hours. Now I'm not claiming that this was some heroic feat on part, but had I had a smaller tattoo first, I might have known that "this is going to be a lot of pain over a long period of time". I'll be honest, at some point about halfway in I was thinking "I really wouldn't mind if this was over really soon". But I was in for the duration and it really wasn't that bad... no worse than getting my braces installed or a really long time at the dentist. Some places hurt a lot and some hurt more than a lot, but it's really about wanting it more than you mind the pain.

In the end, I had a hell of a piece of work on me. I'll be honest, when I got home, I looked it over and I was in a bit of a state of shock! Despite having worked on the design for months and I had lived with it as an idea for the better part of a year, the reality of was still a bit overwhelming. It was freakin' huge! it was bold! It was so obvious. This was no typical little tattoo. This was a big bold thing that said "I'm a little different". I think that lies at the center of it. I've always been "different". I'm not like anyone else in my neighborhood, I'm not "normal". I'm fine with that, hell I relish it, but I have always been so outwardly conservative that I think most of the suburbanites always assumed I was "one of them". On the other hand, I've never been "radical" enough to be comfortable with being too much of an outward freak. This is a chance to put something of the me inside of me on the outside. I think it was the sudden reality that it was now there for all to see that kind of surprised me at first.

Now the initial shock is over and I am loving it more and more everyday, even as it begins to peel and crust and flake. Funny thing is , no sooner did I get over the initial "holy shit this thing is major!" reaction than I started feeling like it needed a bit more....In fact when I designed it, I worked up a larger body of work -another arm, a back piece and more work on each arm. Maybe now I will go forward with those as well. The cherry is busted, might as well go for broke (well without going broke if I can).