Tattoos

That's pretty cool; I haven't seen a design like that before. I like tattoos (conditions apply) but don't have any yet. I plan on getting a small one - the word Hallelujah - when I turn 18 in a couple of months, either on my wrist, foot/ankle, or the back of my neck. It will remind me to always be thankful for what I have and for being alive, and also represents my strange mix of Christian and atheist beliefs (the word Hallelujah has both religious and non-religious meanings).

 

I have a desert tortoise tat, left forearm. Got it in Sante Fe in April.

 

You have to be careful with tatoos. I remember a story of a man getting a tattoo of his family on his back, only to learn his wife was cheating on him so he had a face he bated stuck on his back. For this reason I would never get a tattoo, or if I did it would have to be small and symbolic, like yours.

 

It's odd, I would never, ever have a tattoo myself but I sometimes quite fancy them on other women!

Not tacky pictures, really - and I don't really like writing but an image that is quite meaningful can be attractive.

 

I have a chess knight on my forearm. I also have a celtic cross on my upper arm.

 

Someday, I'd like to get two tattoos. One would be birds flying out of a cage (forearm), which is a reference to my favorite poem. The second would be cherry blossoms across the right side of my back/shoulder blade.

 

I haven't had any tattoos but my dad is a professinal tattoo artist.

 

I have a cheetah tattooed on my right shoulder blade. Yeah, not the best choice of picture, but who doesn't make mistakes in their teens?.. Though I don't really regret the tattoo itself. I'm thinking about getting another one, maybe something small on my wrist or forearm.

 

This is the tattoo I'll be getting on my back to celebrate when my divorce is final...



it's a combination of the symbol for Om (or Aum) and an image of the Hindu deity Ganesha.

Ganesha is the god of wisdom and learning, as well as the remover of obstacles, and as such, the sign of auspiciousness.

Taken letter by letter, A-U-M represents the divine energy (Shakti) united in its three elementary aspects: Bhrahma Shakti (creation), Vishnu Shakti (preservation) and Shiva Shakti (liberation, and/or destruction).

And I find all of the symbolism behind the OM particularly fitting to me, my life, and the transition/evolution I am currently undertaking. My own absolute reality, my current process of creation (viewing myself of something of a caterpillar cocooning), attempting to preserve my self and my sanity, and liberating myself by destroying the restaints/shakles that have been binding me.

 

I want a small monochrome rhino's head on one side of my hip and a lotus on the other, representing stability and equanimity. I definitely want to design my own tattoos. Of course, the tattooist has a say in it as well because they would have expertise on tattoos. Ideally I'd like the final image to be the result of mutual brainstorming.

 

Oh, goodness I love tattoos!! I'm up to 7 right now, but have plans for many more. With only one exception, I get tattoos when something very significant happens in my life. I like to immortalize the moment so that my body becomes the paper on which the story of my life is written.

 

I would love to have tattoo, but I am afraid with the judgmental people around me.

 

i work in a tattooists a designer/ apprentice i have three myself my first was a dragon and my latest a rabbit on my foot (lucky rabbit foot) we see some mad stuff in the shop though like literally everything you could imagine

 

That's really beautiful. I used to think about getting a charm bracelet tattooed onto my wrist and adding symbols onto it representing life events.

 

hmm, love it! But one problem, neither tortoises nor faeiries are supposed to be that hairy!:lol:

 

Hoping to get one for my birthday next month

 

Ha! Those aren't hairs--they're feathers! And the words 'supposed to' aren't part of the Faerie vocabulary!

This was a significant time. I was in Sante Fe, surrounded by desert and mountains and dreamed of a desert tortoise--one of those dreams charged with feeling, like a message to myself. The desert tortoise lives in burrows, comes out at night. I thought, I've been living underground, and now this is the evening of my life. The sun is setting. It's time to come out of my burrow. Those were my thoughts, and I didn't even connect them to sex! Other than the standard Freudian stuff... in and out of the hole sort of thing.
I'd very recently learned of the death of a childhood friend--and only realized with that news--that I'd been in love with him. The beginning of four months of the most intense homoerotic fantasies. I wasn't one bit afraid or ashamed--I live in the most queer friendly space imaginable, and when I asked myself: "would I act on those fantasies if opportunity presented itself?" --no hesitation, hell yes! However unlikely anyone would be interested in me at my age.
My problem was that I couldn't quite grasp that it was possible--after so many years of heteronormative sex... two marriages. Two children. Only when I had re-written my life narrative, connecting to my childhood and early adolescent experiences, was I able to convince myself it was possible. That this hadn't come out of nowhere. It was there all along.
I'm an artist and poet. I think in images and symbols--and dreams. Sometimes it takes years before I'm able to 'explain' them in prosaic language, but I find, even when I don't know it--I follow those dream images, and the symbols that emerge in my poetry. And that tortoise was one of those symbols. Five months later, having come out--and planning to go to a fall gathering of Radical Faeries, I noticed in reading about one of the first Radical Faeries, Harry Hay... that I had gotten my tortoise tattoo on his birthday--not far from where he had once lived.
If ever I have the money for another tat--it will be a crow on my right arm. Can't tell you why, but the crow and the tortoise belong together in my mind. Maybe when I have that crow on my arm, I will cross my arms, and they will tell me their story.

 

From one old guy to another: Too bad you're so far away---I could prove you wrong!