4/20/11 Tattooing...I just wanna be good at what i love doing!

  As far back as i can remember I have always loved tattoos. The idea of covering your skin in artwork was very appealing to me. At a pretty young age people would request my artwork as tattoo ideas which was very flattering but I never felt very confident in my skills. I have been seriously drawing since I was very young, probably about 5 years old. I spent a lot of time drawing people, there is rarely a lack of examples considering we are living in heavily populated area. It wasnt until I got older that I started drawing inanimate objects, I wish I would have tried to draw everything around me and everything I could think of while I was still in the early development of my drawing style.

   If I had a dollar for every person who said " You should become a tattoo artisit" , I could have purchased a top of the line tattoo machine....and a rainbow of inks. I always wanted to buy the things I needed to start tattooing but everytime I had a little spare cash something came up or I drank the money away.

  One day my boyfriend and I are headed out for dinner and he is pretty giddy about something, so I inqure about his giddyness and he says he got something for me and he couldnt keep it a secret much longer. Once I found out there was a surprise for me I had to know what it was, and he had no problem telling me. It was a Basic tattooing kit and I was shocked! I believe I teared up a little because of the excitement, so I spent the next month or so researching everything I could about tattooing, blood born pathogens, cross contamination, technique and history of the art. It was pretty overwhelming and my confidence level was pretty low after realizing how much responsibility is involved.

  I hadn't touched my machines until I had a good idea of how they worked and how to put them together. My first tattooing experience was on fruit and I thought I was awesome! I had pretty good control over the tattoo machine and  felt on top of the world as soon as i heard the buzzing of the machine. After I was finished tattooing a rose on a grapefruit I looked over it and im very glad that wasnt someone skin, the line work was good but i tore that grapefruit up soooo bad.

  It took me a while to work up the courage to tattoo myself but when I did it was incredibly nerve-wracking. I had "set up Shop" at my roommates dining room table. I sanitized my work area, layed all of my equipment on my paper towles and as I was assembling my machine, my hand was shaking a bit... great. When I tapped the foot pedal it took me probably half a dozens times to actually touch the needle to my skin. I took a deep breath and made my first line and it was awful! Unfortunatly for the lines I was trying to achive required many passes which caused me to tear up my skin a bit, but I had to learn. In my first session I "fixed" my ankle tattoo which was my name done with a needle and thread back in like 1999. Above that I tattooed a large rose and surprisingly it turned out rather well.... I couldnt stop... after that I tattooed a star above my knee all in one stting.

 It didnt take long before my friends were lining up and it was pretty awesome. I wasn't asking for any kind of payment, just guinnie pigs. My first tattoo on another person was pretty intense as well, when you tattoo yourself you can feel how deep you are going with the needle, on another person you really have to pay attention, you can either not go deep enough and have to do several passes over an area or go to deep and scar the person up pretty bad, the idea is to leave a beautilful peice of artwork... not battle wounds.

  I was pretty much sticking to basic line work for a while. I wanted to have a firm grasp on lines before I moved onto shading and solid color. My confidence level went up a little everytime because my friends were more then enthusiastic!

  Sometimes in life we come across people or situations that try to make us believe we cant do things or we arent good enough, there is always someone who is trying to rain on your parade. When I talked to tattoo artisit about apprenticeship they basically talked down to me, it was pretty frustrating... why would I wanna work in a field where the people are so stuck up?  Maybe if people were more willing to share their wealth of knowledge there wouldn't be so many "scratchers" out there. But I didn't let other peoples negativity stop me.

    After a few months of tattooing somewhat regularly I found out I was pregnant and I wasn't willing to put my childs health at risk with the slim chances of cross contamination, so I put away my tattoo gun and became a oven for a little baby bun.  A little while after my big bouncing baby boy was born, my boyfriend starting asking when I was gonna start tattooing again, it didnt take long before I was "setting up shop" again. 

   I have a few ideas im throwing around with a few people about tattoos they want and it feels good to be doing what makes my adrenaline pump. I really dont care if I ever work in a tattoo shop, I just want to be good at what i like doing  I may not be very good right now but in a few years who knows where ill be.


  ( all tattoos on this page are done by me, but they are in no specific order as to when they were done)

4/13/11 zombies

  I dont think our government is intelligent enough to create a formula to revive the recently deceased, nor are we lucky enough to experience a virus that was engineered in a top secret research facility escape and wreak havoc... i think Hell will get full. Romero style... I hope.  If zombies turn out to be fast on their feet then we as a species are F**ked, especially the fattys and old folks.

  I have had a unhealthy obsession with the undead for a long time, im sure it stared with my mom, she showed me horror movies at a pretty young age and i loved them. When i was a teenager, my mother, brother and myself would spend hours talking about what we would do "when" the zombie invasion happens.  I believe thats when the true obsession really started... i was prepareing my mind for the possibility that one day i might become a brutal zombie slayer.

  People want to do all kinds of different things with their life... like become doctors or car sales men... whatever.  How many people actually dream of becoming a brutal leather clad machete toting zombie mutalater....me... thats at least one.

  The inital wave of zombies would be devasating... the majority of people would either become food or more zombies. Thats when you take time to make your home or destination an impenetratable fortress, gather weaponry and unparishables and essentials. the goal is to not lose your head and disconnect yourself emotionally. We all know zombies are bitters so u want to wear somd kind of armor... wether it be leather or kevlar.. chainmail... hockey gear... whatever floats your boat.

  Unfortunantly not everyone knows how to shoot a gun or is a fencing master so accuracy is something to be desired. I know im probably not a good shot, so thats why i would carry a shot gun, accuracy isnt an issue. Any senseable zombie slayer would also carry a machete or sword, there are only so many bullets and you dont need to reload a sword... know what im sayin'?  If you are adventureing into a heavily infested area, explosives are suggested.

  Maybe i crave chaos... im a child of anarchy. sometimes we just need to destroy something. Zombie slaying seems like a good outlet for anger managment and stress relief....at least a temporary relief.  Maybe thats why i fantasized about it so much, i needed to release my anger or maybe i wanted to escape current reality.  It seems like the more time that goes by the more my chances go down for surviving the zombie nation... having children and being out of shape and getting older are all signs of a potential fest for pack of hungry flesh eating monsters. Maybe i should just give up on the dream, i dont know if it will happen in my life time... im sure  hell is getting pretty damn full with all the wretched people that have already infested earth... i mean... there is only like 44,000 spots in heaven ( supposidly)... and there are like 50,000 people living in the township i reside in... so the odds that anyone else is getting in those pearly gates are not in our favor.

 When my son is older Im sure i will prepare him for how to handle a zombie attack, i mean... those zombies arent gonna kill thmselves.... maybe i birthed the "john Conner" of zombie slayers.... geeze... thats a whole new blog....

4/13/11 Teething and what not

  The past few days have been kinda rough, the boy is teething and not enjoying it a whole lot. Who could blame him?  I get irritable at the slightest sign of tooth pain. As he is sitting here looking at me with his puffy little red eyes i cant help but realize he is 5 months old already... where has the time gone?

  His First 2 months of life were spent crying due to colic, which you can imagine were just lovely. I had heard the horror stories of colicy babies but never considered that my little bundle of joy would  end up being a little bundle of screams. I would search the internet while he was sleeping for ways to help him and I
 cope with this "colic", it turns out that no one really knows what causes it or how to fix it... The Doctor we see  pretty much said deal with it. With experimenting with different formulas we found something that helped baby cakes a lot. Nutramigen by enfamil works pretty well for him. unfortunantly it is not kind to our wallets.

  So by Asher's 4th month he seems to have conqured the colic and he is a happy bouncing baby boy  who has the sweetest laugh. I've never heard laughter that was so contagious before, he rambles on in baby lingo and is learning to sit up pretty well on his own. I keep telling him not to grow up so fast but he just wont listen, ( i guess it would help if he could understand what i was saying,, comprehend the idea of anti-aging and actually agree to being a tiny baby for ever... which is a lot to ask someone). At the end of his 4th month the teething begins....( insert ominous music here)

  I know of a few things to help ease the pain of teething, cold teething rings, wet wash cloths, anything baby can chew on pretty much, baby origel, and baby pain releavers, good old fashion cuddle time and sleep, but this little boy has just been miserable and there really isnt anything i can do for him and that drives me nuts. I hope his discomfort passes with haste... i better get as many pictures of his toohtless grin while i can.