FO: Inked

I've always had a love for tattoos...in fact, I got 2 when I was in my 20's. Not very many people know this about me (they are on my ankles so rarely seen by colleagues) and seem surprised when they find this fact out.  I wonder about this...I love art in all forms and to me, tattoos are art.  Just the permanent variety. 

Getting a tat is a huge deal in my opinion and while I don't regret the ones of my 'youth', I don't think I got them for the right reasons.  This is permanent and I now firmly believe that you get one for a specific/special reason rather than 'this is cool'.  That's why it has taken me almost 2 decades before I got another one.  First, I wanted it to be tied to a significant event.  Second I wanted a tat that meant something personally to me.  Third, I wanted to design my own.  Making all these things add up takes time.

Last spring, I was sitting in a bar with 'my' graduate student drinking a beer and eating a rueben.  We were both sort of freaking out about the field season.  How much else needed to be done in order to be prepared, whether or not we could make it a success...you know.  She mentioned that if both field seasons were a success, she was going to get a deer tattoo at the end of the fieldwork in honor of that (she has one tattoo already of Trillium).  I thought about it for awhile and decided that getting through this particular field season was significant enough for me to finally get another tattoo.  So we made a deal...successful field season meant we would meet up in Boise this fall and both get tattoos.  

Getting an elk was a no brainer because they truly are what I am most passionate about.  But where and what design was trickier.  'A' told me where she wanted hers and I loved the idea.  The forearm.  It was a big step for me to get something 'visible' because of the stigma attached to people with tattoos.  But I am established, well known and respected, and if colleagues don't like it, at this point in my career, I could care less!  If I were younger and just starting my career, I may have opted for a different location. And I also like this location because while sagging occurs everywhere with aging, the forearm maybe is one of the last to go!

As soon as I decided to get one, I knew what image I wanted to work off for a design.  I took this a couple falls ago after a long, tough field season with the elk and it remains one of my favorite shots of wild elk.  

From there, it was pretty simple figuring out the design.  I'm a 'cow' person myself but bulls are quite majestic so I knew I needed a male...I rounded it out with 2 females and 1 calf...so the 'girls' outnumbered 'the boys'.  It may seem crazy but this was very important to me.  And I reversed the image so the bulls antlers were in the widest part of my forearm...and 'squished' everything together a bit so it wasn't so long.  

And here it is (I've got some dry skin so ignore that!).  Also, it's very difficult to take a picture of one's forearm I found out...and the tricky thing about a tat on the forearm is it depends on how you hold your arm whether it is 'straight' or not.  I was unknowingly twisting my arm slightly here.

I'm very pleased with it although I must admit to freaking out the first couple of days because I felt it was 'so big' and 'so visible'.  Now I love it.  I love the reason I got it.  I love that it is elk.  And I love that it was my own design based on my own photograph.  I do wish that more detail was captured, but that's pretty hard on a tat this small.

There will be more in my future. But the right time has to present itself and it will have to be my own design.  So it'll likely be awhile!  I'll let everyone get used to this one for the time being!

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Now playing: Ten Feet Tall by The Devil Makes Three   

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