Montreal Ink

After over a decade of not wearing tank tops in public, last summer I finally had cover up work done to an old tattoo that was on the back of my right shoulder. I had been complaining about it for years but didn’t know what would work as artwork for the cover up and time just kept ticking on.The bridesmaid dresses we chose for Jenn’s wedding last fall were strapless which meant that the heinous thing would be have been exposed in all its glory. My big sis took me aside and basically said ‘you’re not walking down my aisle with that thing on your back’.

So, this gave me the kick in the butt to finally get it fixed. Last summer I worked with Jeff Wiet at Adrenaline tattoo and he designed this lovely tribal eternity spiral for me which I had etched on last July (note to readers – never get tattoos in the summer!).

Well, it had been 12 years since I was under the needle and I had forgotten how horridly addicting it is. I said I wouldn’t get any new work done until I fixed up my old stuff and I still have a small lower back piece that has not stood the test of time very well. I thought I’d start on that this year BUT last winter I dreamt that I had a Japanese cherry blossom tattooed down my rib cage and the image of that stayed in my head for months later. Sooo….in March I got in touch with an artist named Randy Stewart who had just opened up a studio in Montreal who had done some beautiful cherry blossoms on a friend of mine. I chickened out of the rib cage placement – tattooing the ribs is just far too painful to endure so I had it put on my left shoulder instead. My first session in April was a very long 3 hour event and I went back a month later to have the touch up work and some extra colour put in. I’m so thrilled with it and just love how it came out. I didn’t want the design to be too visible – it comes up to the collar bone and down to just over my shoulder so it can still be hidden under a t-shirt without a problem. Maybe a little petal peeks out here and there but that is fine with me. I’m getting old – I’m not worried about making the wrong impression on society any more.
When I went back for the touch up work I asked Randy to add two blossoms to the top of my foot. I adore tattoos on the feet but had heard about the excruciating pain that is involved with them. The pain of getting tattooed is very misconceived. It is really not all that bad and is more annoying than painful – like wearing a bad pair of shoes. I always ranked it as #5 on my list of life’s pains – it came in way under a bikini wax and infected impacted wisdom teeth. Until the foot. Sweet Lord the foot. I thought I could hack it because I knew it was a small piece of artwork but after three small lines – I was begging him to stop. I didn’t think I would make it through it. All I did for the 15 minutes of torture was hang on to my leg to keep it from shaking while wiping off the sweat that was pouring out of my palms.
What’s next? Maybe a big pirate ship, some skulls and a big anchor. Maybe not :)