Tattoo number... 3 1/2???

Well, I can't really call this tattoo #4, because it's not. It's a revision of tatt #2, seen here when it was new:


For whatever reason, I became dissatisfied with this little beauty. Her colors faded, and she got... dull and boring. Like me! BWHAHAHAHHAH! Kidding! Anyhoo, I started thinking about what I might do to perk her up.

I'd long been wanting to add a Celtic tattoo to my collection of body art, but had never hit on anything I really liked. Then one day one of my Twitter peeps posted his new body art, which as I recall was some sort of initials. The font was so beautiful, and it was so nicely done, I began to think about textual tattoos. It wasn't long before I moved from that, to the idea of putting a Gaelic word on my Irish self!



Little did I know, coming up with the right word would be among the hardest things (the font being the second hardest). First I had to think of what I might want to say, then find out how to say it in Gaelic! And, y'know, some Gaelic words are pretty nutty! They're either long, or don't translate directly, or sound bizarre to the American ear.

So, after much back and forth with my kind Irish peep Martin, I finally settled on the word you see here. It means, "change". I thought it went nicely with the butterfly image.

Then, the day before I was due to go to my tattoo shop Yoni, I started thinking, hmmmm... This re-design needs a little something beyond just the addition of the word. So I dropped in a rough sketch of a vine around the butterfly, and decided to see what my girl Julie could do with this concept. I knew she'd rock it, cuz that's how she does.



I grabbed mah best girl Donita, and off we went.


Here is the pre-tatt, after Julie had transferred the design onto my arm and around the existing butterfly. (At this point, you can wash it off and start over if you decide you're not gonna like it.) I already knew I'd love it!


Here I am, in the chair, while Julie works her magic!


And here it is right after completion, still smeary with ink!


Here it is, after one day of healing. It doesn't hurt at all anymore! And I adore it!