Tattooed Lady part 2

Hello everyone, where did we get up to the other day??

Oh yes, we successfully covered tattoo's number 1, 3 and 12. Well if we move along in history the next tattoo is again actually a series of tatt's done over another long period of time. They make up the collection 2,4 and 13, and today they look like this........

Number 2

Is actually no longer visible on my current tattoo. I got this tattoo about 6 months after my first one, and was done again by Mike Price. At that point in my life I was unknowingly suffering from depression, and this has a great bearing I think on the circumstances of my second tattoo and my subsequent feelings about it. I had in mind at the time to get a Celtic band design ( a girl I worked with at the time asked me if a Celtic band was a style of music..... err.....nope!!). However when I looked at what Mike had available in my price range on the day, I simply could not get anything that I liked. Now today my sensible adult self would say, OK,  you could start on a design that I like and I can have it finished at a later date. However on that day I was badly hung over,  in a very 'I don't give a toss' frame of mind, and ( as I am strive to be completely honest in all my blogs) I had a very sore arm from a session of drunken self harming too. So what I did was randomly pick a design and said "I'll have that". The design I chose was a Phoenix. Now some might say the subject choice was quite me, and I can't disagree, however it was a very brightly coloured tattoo, rather 'old school' and from day 1 I hated it.   This is the only picture I have of it (  along with tattoo number 4 ) and was taken just before the cover up, just so I would have a reminder of what  I was covering.

Number 4

Has a much shorter story. this was done a year after my dream catcher tattoo. Again we were on holiday in Looe, Cornwall, so I took a visit back to East Looe Tattoo's. This design is one I had pictured in my head for several years, although I had always wanted it as a much larger design on my upper leg. I was however at this time in my life far too fat to have a leg tattoo, and so I settled for another arm one. My now Ex hubby did not complain too much about this one to start with, although he did not like me getting it. But he complained very vocally when he realised that I had disobeyed him and had another tattoo done on the same day (number 5, to be covered in part 3). I have always loved this tattoo, it was in a small way a symbol of my growing defiance of my bully husband, and so when I decided to get a cover up, I wanted to save this one.

 

Number 12

Number 12 was started in  Nov 2010 and is to date my biggest and most expensive tattoo. It was done over 8 sittings of between 1 and 1.5 hours each and in total cost me in excess of £450. It was worth it though. Lillie's are my favourite flowers, and my brief to Phil when I went for the cover up was simple. I wanted a lily to cover up the Phoenix. I had an image in my head of a small cover up, but Phil explained that the Phoenix would not be easy to cover, and so a larger piece would be required. I trust Phil's expertise and so let him go ahead with what he had in mind. This tattoo is different to all my others as it is a newer style of tattoo. It does not have outlines drawn in black, but is more similar to a painting and so is far more lifelike. In each initial sitting I had a single lily added to my arm.

 

As you can see I did not have my beloved Indian band covered up, but instead let it lie above the bunch of lilies. Once the four main lilies were complete it took another 4 sittings to put in the dark foliage which covered up the Phoenix and then the finer details such as the half opened lilie's. it is a work of art. My favourite tattoo and one that gets compliments where ever I go.

 

So there is a another three tattoo's covered. I have realised during writing part 2, that although I currently have 11 tattoo's, actually my tattoo history covers 15 tattoo's if I include cover ups and joined tattoo's. I have also realised that the only two tattoo's that I have had done that I did not lke, or that went wrong were done  without much thought during bad periods in my life. But as with my tattoo's everything is repaired and beautiful now. I hope you are enjoying this 'mini series' of blogs, and I look forward to telling you about more of them next time. Until then, C ya, Tracey Xx