inked for life!

Let’s face it, there are a lot of street tattoo artists out there who get business because they charge an extremely lower price than the professionals in the shop. We in the tattoo world refer to them as “Scratchers” Now don’t get me wrong, not all scratchers are bad artists, when I was younger and was getting a new tattoo every month I myself had a guy that I had do my tattoos at the time, until I started going to the shop instead and starting comparing the work.

There are many safety precautions you have to take when getting a tattoo. You want to do research on the artist of your choice, make sure he is legit and definitely look over previous work he or she has done. Also you want to make sure the environment in which you are getting it done is clean. When you are getting a tattoo that needle is puncturing your skin thousands of times and it is basically an open wound at the time. You don’t want germs, dirt and dust all over the place and risk infection so it is very important that the area is clean. And the most important of all the precautions is to make sure your artist uses clean needles every single time. For me, I watch a make sure I see them open the needle out of a fresh, unopened package before I even take a seat. Reusing needles is a dangerous game, you can catch awful diseases and sickness if your needle wasn’t used for you and you only. The last thing anyone wants is to walk in wanting a tattoo and leaving with an STD, AIDS or other diseases so always make sure your needle is new.

Some scratchers just pick up the hobby from off the streets so they have no had proper training, a lot of them even try to freehand the work and I never recommend that, always go with a stencil. But since they were not properly trained their technique can often times be flawed. They could not press hard enough into the skin, which means the ink won’t hold and will fade away overtime. Even worse they can press too deep, or use the wrong needle for a certain type of work and leave your body scarred, damaged and even infected. I would show images but I would rather spare you and hope that you take my word.

Like I said, not all street artists are bad artists, some are quite good and choose not to go professional simply because they do not want to have to pay for their chair, like barbers have to. But if you are gonna choose to have something permanently marked on you, you want it done right and you want it to last. So shelling out a couple hundred is worth it if that is what you really want. Tattoos are a lot like hair for women, you spend $40 well…expect to LOOK like you spent $40 dollars.

Don’t be cheap and Embrace the INK!

When you really care about your ink it is not always easy to pick the perfect tattoo. Many people permanently mark things on their body that they later in life eventually regret, not everyone but a lot of people. I take a long time deciding on my next piece of work and I spend a lot of time with the tattoo artist of my choice making sure together we get it perfect.

Each one of my pieces have meaning to me and that is all that matters, the only tattoo I have that literally took no thought at all was the tattoo of my daughter’s name and birthday on my wrist, it goes without saying, I just had to have it. But there is nothing like brainstorming and researching images and playing around in your own head and BAM, just like that the perfect tattoo comes to mind. It’s like a gift to yourself that you have yet to open yet you already know what it is. I get excited and if I had the funds every time the perfect tattoo came to mind I would get up and go make it happen at that moment, but we all know good work from a professional costs money and if it is going to be on my body for the rest of my life I want it to be flawless.

It is not easy to get exited about tattoo work if it is not something you are a fanatic about. So I do not expect everybody to fully understand. Just the smell of a tattoo shop alone get’s my blood rushing in an excited and nervous manner. The sound of the tattoo gun get’s my adrenaline pumping while it often intimidates others. Watching my vision slowly come to life on my skin is a beautiful thing and I walk out proud every single time. And the time I spend in the mirror looking at my new addition, admiring the artist’s work is ridiculous, literally like a kid on Christmas who just received the toy they have been begging for all year long. Tattooing is not a fad as many believe, it has been around for years, there is a history to it and it is here to stay. Embrace the art!

From the moment I received my first tattoo at the age of 17, if anybody in my family was against it, it was my grandma. She never understood the purpose behind it and would grow more and more agitated with every new mark I make. I think of her often, when I am looking over my inked body in the bathroom mirror, or when I have an idea in mind of what to get next and even right before I take a seat in the chair to add more work to my walking canvas, my grandma always comes to mind.

Charlotte Arnold is the middle pillar in our family of mostly women, so when she speaks, we listen. And most of the time when she voices her opinion, it matters, usually more than anyone else. So a lot of us take into consideration what grandma would think before we make a decision. I did, but my heart was dead set on getting a tattoo and no one, not even my grandma could change my mind. I had the written consent from my mother and that was all I needed and I was ready to go! Oddly enough, my grandmother was one of the first people to see it, I had to show her. She didn’t say much, now that I think about it, tattoo wasn’t much to look at either, it was a small Japanese symbol about 2 inches wide that meant ‘Rebellion’ in English on my right shoulder blade. I had been going through my teen angst phase, a little trouble at home, a little bit more trouble at school, acting out behind my thick headed boyfriend(who would later end up being the father of my child) you know, typical high school stuff so the tattoo felt like it fit me well. And it did, and in a less immature way than before, in a way it still does.

My grandma said she didn’t know why I got it but she found it to be cute, and warned me not to go overboard with it. Had only she knew that that statement had fallen upon deaf ears because here we are 6 years and 10 more tattoos later grandma is still pissed! I am the misfit of the family in more ways than one, but that is my role. I am not the only with tattoos, but I am the only one with more than 1, so if anyone hears it from grams, it is gonna be me. “Your body is a temple,” “You have such beautiful skin and a lovely figure, why on earth would you wanna mark it up like that?” and my favorite “I am so sick of this Brandi, you aren’t gonna have nothing left to tattoo but your face if you don’t quit!”

I cannot help it, my grandma will fuss at me, and scold me for continuing, but she knows that I will not stop until I am done, and even though she hates that I do it, she can’t help but like the art once it is complete, all of them grow on her eventually. And she hugs and kisses me just the same. I actually plan on getting some more ink this weekend so stay tuned but sssshhhhhhh, don’t tell grandma!

I love music. I find some of it to be inspirational, some lyrics seem like they were written for me for that exact moment. But even more than the lyrics, I fall in love with the rhythm and the beat. Sometimes I hear a song that is so beautiful to me that it nearly brings me to tears. Usually if I am stricken with that type of emotion from music it is usually when I am listening to Piano compilations. I have been in love with the piano since I was a small child. If there was a piano used in a song I have always been able to pick it out and most of my favorite songs have a piano melody. I like classical as well as new age style compilations. It is poetry with sound instead of words, basically it art and I believe that goes without saying. Two of my favorites of all time would be the classical piece, “Canon in D” by Pachebel and a new age piece by one of my new favorite pianists Yiruma entitled, “River Flows In You.” Both of the pieces make my insides swell up in the most indescribable way. Music is what keeps people going sometimes, I believe that to my core. Some people live and breathe music when they wake up every morning. Music is such an important part of some people’s lives that they have an ode to it branded on their skin forever. There are plenty of people out there who have some sort of musical reference tattoo

somewhere on their body. From people who just enjoy it that much, to those who are still perfecting their craft in hopes to make it big, all the way up to famous celebs who have already made it and just love what they do. They translate their love for musical art onto their bodies to show the world or maybe as just a reminder to themselves as to what it is to keep them going every single day. Music is art. Tattoos are art. Life is art.

I have never been one for blogging. Seems hard to believe seeing as how we live in an age where everything we think, feel or even eating at the moment is shared online. If I wasn’t assigned this project through my Public Relations Techniques course, I doubt I would have ever thought to do this.

But I am here and this is all about the ink and the misfits who love it. I got my first tattoo when I was 17 years old. I had my mother’s permission of course, but it was one of the most exciting days of my teenage years. I have always known I wanted one but I had no idea I would fall in love with them the way that I have. There is so much beauty in people’s choice of ink, so many stories, some sad, some happy and some that just represent that person and who they think that they are.

This is what I love so much about it, its the self expression. People see ink that isn’t blatantly obvious and wonder what it means or why did you get it? But that is just the thing, it is not meant for others to understand, just like art hanging in a gallery, everyone can have their own interpretation of the piece, but the only one who knows is the artists themselves.

So this is to us, to those who understand the art within the ink, those of us who know that not all of our stories are meant to be understood, that tattoos aren’t a short lived fad, it’s a lifelong decision that we carry with us everywhere. We are Inked for Life.