3 weeks ago, I went forward with a taboo of the modeling
industry. In the ever going effort to keep a clean slate (untainted body in
this case) agencies everywhere ask to hold off on getting body art, or
tattoos I should say. For years, I had been planning on doing this,
deliberating on what, where and how big.
After all this time and a serendipitous invitation from a friend I began
to move forward.
Why now though? Well a few reasons:
- I am in a warm humid environment. This provides a great place to allow the tattoo to heal.
- I feel like I moving forward with my life into an as of yet undefined career but still a significant change.
- Slight rebellion against the plain white canvas this is a model.
Flash back to beginning of May, my friend Babs (who claims
to have a bad influence on me) mentioned she would be meeting her tattoo artist
to discuss her next tattoo. Light bulb! I asked about tagging along and began
to put my best efforts onto paper to demonstrate what I wanted. With artistic
skills aside, you could begin to get the jest of what was in my head for years.
Paper in hand, Babs and I met up with Moon of Moonstruck
Tattoos. He had done a number of her pieces and they were all impressive. I began to describe what I wanted. Starting
with a Canadian coat of arms, removing insignificant parts to me, and adding
others. The union jack and fleur des lis
have little significance in my life, so I dropped those flags completely.
Moving to the crest I decided to use symbols significant to me, mountains and a
sheath of wheat to signify my prairie roots and love for being in the
mountains. Icelandic Mjolnir (thors hammer) and Ukrainian Tryzub would
highlight my ancestorial roots with the Scottish thistle below. Lastly I would
replace the lion and unicorn for deeper meaning. Dreki the Icelandic dragon was
a protector from the particular region my ancestors set sail from in the late
1800s. Lastly the gyrfalcon is a symbol
of Iceland, Ukraine and Canada.
My significance came together into an image that Moon
created. A far cry from my original drawing I was impressed. Off to work we go.
Normally I am not one to get nervous, I am actually someone
that tries to be so prepared that nervousness is the last thing on my mind.
Even still waiting for that first contact of needle on skin did leave me a
little on edge. I was prepared though, having a large healthy breakfast of eggs
, apples and oatmeal, with cinnamon to give that longer lasting glycemic
effect, I mean for flavour of course.
Packed with me was my 1L Nalgene and a recent discovery of Stephen James organic energy bar (mmm so good, sushi flavoured).
With the stencil on, we decided to shrink it a little bit
and restencil. For those of you that are still wondering, yes this will be big
and no its not on my arm or lower back. I decided to go with my thigh.
One of my other big concerns was how to I keep myself
entertained for 5 or 6 hours. Well moon had me covered on that, besides being a
great conversationalist (which you kinda have to be), he had a tv set up for me
to watch Hansel & Grettel, Vikings and a little big bang theory to round
things off. 
Naturally curious I wanted to watch as that hum of the tool
began to scrape and etch ink into my skin. As the day began it was a dull
scrape, different but not uncomfortable.
With the inking progressing to scratching a sunburn then about 6 hours
in feeling like a cat was scratching your sunburn for you. Final details being drawn in I was nearly
biting my fist, but came out with a smile.
The healing is now done and I have shown my family and
friends in Canada. Cheers everyone, I
hope you like it.
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