...on tattoo #3.
I put my deposit down with Chris Trevino of Perfection Tattoo. Lucky me. One of the best American tattoo artists in the Japanese style works less than a mile from my house.
Booking day is October 1, to book time for after the first of the year, so I've got a long wait, but I'm in now.
This will be a traditional Japanese shoulder and sleeve piece, down to my elbow. Main feature is a black swan, ornamented with Easter lilies. That's all I've given him, the rest is up to him.
What's strange is that even though it will be Japanese in style, the symbols are all Irish. The Black Swan of Iveragh was the symbol of the Uí Shéaghdha clan in southwest Ireland in the pre-English era. Easter lilies, of course, being most commonly used in remembrance of the Easter Rebellion of 1916, which eventually led to the creation of the Irish Free State.
Protestants in N. Ireland associated the easter lily with Sinn Féin, and thus in some quarters it's considered a terrorist symbol, so I doubt I'll be flashing this tattoo in public if I ever visit Belfast. But it is first and foremost a symbol of Irish Nationalist pride, and should be treated as such.
Anyway, I'm excited. It's been 12 years since my last tattoo. I went through this long phase in the 90's where I wasn't sure if I wanted any more tattoos, because of some notion I had that I was going into management, that I was going to be hobnobbing with rich people, etc., etc., etc. And I had some insecurities about fitting in.
Well, OK, I'm 40. The management thing never worked out. The whole internet millionaire thing didn't last long. ;) And I'm thinking "Do I want to be a guy who wishes he had more tattoos but never did it because he was afraid that someday he might regret having them? And the years tick by, and all he regrets is that he hasn't got them yet?"
Fuck that.
I'm getting inked.
