You should wear a thong at the beach. Why spend the money and suffer the pain of getting a tattoo if you're just going to keep it covered up?
I'm not entirely sure 'cause it was such a long time ago and a somewhat... unstable period in my life, but if memory serves me right, it was a combination of web research, cross-checking it with the linguistics section of my university's library, and then having a friend from the uni proofread it (she knew runes, so since she didn't spot mistakes, I figured my research hadn't gone horribly wrong). Sounds like you got a pretty interesting family history. Might even work well as a novel. *hint, hint* This is a bit off-topic, but I gotta ask; how did you figure out your totem animal? I've been trying to find mine, but it still eludes me. Kat's came to her in a dream, but so far the only animal that has frequented my dreams has been my dead family cat. @obsidian_cicatrix, that's a really impressive collection. Got any pics to post? All my dedicated tattoo photos disappeared when my old laptop died years ago and after that, the only pics that show my tattoos are from my band's gigs and, of course, since dark lighting and lots of movement go hand-in-hand with rock music, you can't really see them all that well; either the angle is wrong, the pic is blurry, or it's too small / was taken too far away. Maybe it's only for the eyes of that special someone?
I wear Brazilian square cuts. Trust me, you can see it then. The "trailing edges" of the wings define the very upper curve of my butt(cheeks) so the tattoo is really on my lower back, the tips of the wings curving down, around the sides and below my belt-line. You can see it if I have no shirt on, just not all of it. I would post a picture, but... it's a little much I think.
I've always been too scared to get one! Like I'm gonna regret it later so I may as well not waste the money and stuff.
I used to be a major fan of bodybuilding (natural bodybuilding, not the chemical-bloated kind you see in the big pro contests) and I think the muscled, no-body-hair look is best for a guy. I've seen guys compete in bodybuilding contests with tattoos, and they invariably look awful. Some of them have tried to have the tats removed, but you can still see they were there and it kind of makes their skin look ruined. I don't like tattoos. I'd never get one.
That's not a good attitude towards tattoos. Tats make you look cool and tell the world you mean business! Consider how many warriors throughout history had tattoos. I've got some. A texas star, a united federation of planets logo, a hammer/sickle. Thinking of larger things to get. Maybe a crusader and a Saracen warrior shaking hands? Maybe the star trek captains in profile? Right now I'm leaning towards getting my own portrait for a chest piece.
The idea of ink being permanently stained into your skin sounds kind of dangerous, too. Guess I'm a wuss!
It's not that dangerous. With modern techniques and tools the risk of infection is very small. Just listen when they tell you not to take off the wrap for a certain amount of time. Even without the antiseptics and whatnot, people have been tattooing for thousands of years and not dying from it.
@T.Trian I did have one in My Photos. I let it stay up for a while but I felt a bit... exposed. I haven't had an all body pic taken in a long time and most of the ones I have I'm invariably in the buff. Not going there. When I go out I generally don't have much peeping out, maybe a couple of inches of sleeve, if I'm wearing actual three quarter length sleeves. I don't tend to show a lot of flesh. I also tend to avoid cameras, generally speaking. (Refer to my night out with Jannert for proof to that effect. )
Yes, the 'sleeves' were fantastic, as was the bit showing just below the neck in front. In fact, you were just cool to look at, period! Great hair, fabulous boots. Hey. Lots of personal style. I felt like a muffin in comparison.
Maybe when I'm not so bogged down in the memoir I'll take a stab at a novel like that. Finding my totem animal is a bit of strange story and did partially happen in a dream as well. To start, when I was a kid, my Grandpa was a principal and then superintendent of the Cherokee schools in North Carolina. The chief (John something, I think) was friends of the family, totally down to earth guy who wore jeans and t-shirts that you'd never knew held a high standing in the tribe except for when he had his headdress on, and he would come over for dinners when my family would go for summer visits. When I was 8 or 9 I was back home swimming in a canal to open water in the Keys, and the group I was with encountered a smack of jellyfish. At that same time, I kid you not, four stingrays that came near me, one on each side and two more in front that scared me enough to start swimming backward mere seconds before the others started getting stung. The group I was with swam back to the dock and I swear on my life those stingrays swam behind me the entire time and I was the only one that didn't get stung by the jellyfish. What's even more strange is that apparently stingrays are more solitary creatures so to have four of them confront me at one time is unusual, especially in a canal. Maybe it was a coincidence that I was in the path of them who happened to be swimming away from the jellies also...or maybe it was more. Anyway, it was just a couple weeks later that we were back in N.C. and the chief was over for dinner. Everyone is telling stories and my mom was telling him how I'd been on the swim team for the first time that year, and, wanting to feel included, I chimed in about how recently I was swimming and all my friends and family got stung by jellyfish and four stingrays chased me back to the dock...trying to impress him with my speed. He looked at and me said that it didn't sound like they were chasing me, but protecting me, and it looks like I'd had an encounter with my totem animal. I'd never in my life heard about totems or spirit animals or anything and thought that was the coolest thing ever. In all my days at the beach as a kid after that, I never saw another one, let alone four. Now, as an adult, I dream about them all the time and see them in wild a lot. We did one of those theme park encounters last summer where you get in a saltwater cove with the caregivers and they teach you about the animal, you can feed them, etc. I did it with my husband, mother, and sister and got swarmed by every ray in that water it seemed. My sister who is 12 years younger than me was very upset that she wanted to touch them and they kept swimming between me and the trainer. So I'd move and switch spots with them and it didn't matter, no matter where I'd go, those rays just loved me, lol. It was a cool experience. My husband just thinks that their sensors are attracted to the metal bars on my spine from scoliosis surgery I had years ago. He's a party pooper even if it's a more "logical" explanation! I have to say that they aren't my favorite animal, either. I've grown to really like them but always loved dolphins, giraffes, and polar bears...I think each is so amazing in it's own way and gravitate to each whenever I see items with those images. So I guess it's true (for those who believe in them) that you really don't choose your totem, it chooses you. I seem to come across stingray images and all the time when not looking and in the most bizarre places. Just the other day I swore there was a cloud in the shape of one. I can't escape!
@jannert Ta. I forgot about the chest piece... yeah, it pops out depending on what kind of neckline I wear. I tend to forget they are there. I was wearing a coloured, patterned top that night, but I usually wear a lot of black and it doesn't draw as much attention to itself. It looks like part of my clothing from a short distance away. @T.Trian It was actually a magazine cover from my early thirties. I was wearing a solid silver chastity belt and bra get-up, finished with pheasant feathers, oryx and gopher skulls, I kid you not. It was originally taken for a New Zealand Silversmiths catalogue. I got grabbed at a convention. I didn't have anywhere near as much coverage then as I do now, but it was still a fairly substantial amount. I was also about 3 weeks past having my head shaved.
I appreciate the artwork of tattoos, but they're just not for me. I once saw a picture of a man with the entirety of Wales on his back. Now that was a tattoo.
Haha, that's so cool, and I loved your story about how you found your totem animal I was absolutely mesmerized by them (as well as manta rays) when I saw them irl. Little baby rays too! Hang on, were you also the person who had written characters called Penny and Vincent as well? If so, I'm sensing an eerie brainwave overlap...
@sunsplash, that was an amazing story. I have no doubt there are things in this universe we can't explain, and despite your husband's reasoning (btw, greetings from another chronic back pain patient!), your experiences just seem a tad too... well, exceptional, for want of a better word, to be just shrugged off with science. I went to look at stingrays and manta rays with @KaTrian a while back at a local aquarium, and I dunno, to me they're probably the cutest water critters. What the Chief you knew said, about totem animals choosing you, seems to indicate I just have to be patient, that one day it'll come to me, but it's just kinda hard to sit and wait when you're as impatient and stubborn as I am. [off-topic]Btw, out of curiosity, do you still swim actively (you mentioned making the swimming team)? To me, it's the one sport I'd pick if I had to pick just one for the rest of my life.[/off-topic] Sounds like a really cool getup / pic in that slightly bizarre sort of way. Did you have a complete 'clan hairdo' or was it something like a mohawk? For a long time I've toyed with the idea of getting a kind of an undercut (leaving the long hair over shaved sides and back) and having a tattoo on the scalp, kinda like Les Claypool (the bassist of one of my favorite bands).
Perish the thought! I'm intrigued by the dark side, I'll give you that, but flip-flops are a tad too evil even for me
