Every tattoo tells a story (Continued)

Almost three years ago, I had a chain and cross tattooed around my neck.  I was inspired by an old cross I once had which had become worn over time, but it was my niece's baptism that put it into motion.  One of my pet peeves is seeing people with crosses made of gold and diamonds around their neck.  The cross, or crucifix, was a method of execution two thousand years ago.  I'm rarely caught entering a church, but I do know that Christ was not all about the bling.  About ten years ago, I bought a cross made of leather and pear wood.  It was simple and plain.  My son use to chew on it when I held him, as a baby.  I could think of nothing better than to have it tattooed around my neck once it had become broken beyond compare.

It was almost 100' F, on a sunny July morning.  I was a walk-in and was lucky enough to be seated right away.  It lead to some very interesting conversation.  Other Christians wonder why I don't go to church.  Atheist's wonder why I even bother.  I'm not hear to change anyone's mind, but I wear my tattoo proudly and never mention a word of it to anyone curious enough to ask.  "It's between me and God", I'd generally be caught saying.

My tattoo is finally finished.  Mike Bee (from Bound for Glory) put in the final touches and added color.  It's amazing!

I think this would be a good marketing tool for selling my book mainly because, I'm not the type of guy who likes to bring up the fact that I'm an author in regular conversation.  I feel very awkward even trying to say nice things about myself, so my "Elevator Pitch" has always been lacking.  I've spent the entire 30 seconds stammering before ever saying anything about my book.  My logic (which may be way off) is that people always comment on tattoos.  Another fact of life (like it or not), is that people do judge a book by it's cover.  I'm thinking that if they like the tattoo, then they'll like the book cover.  At that point, the awkwardness may be alleviated and I'll just be able to tell them that the book is a Sci-Fi\Fantasy that reads like a movie script.  It's a story about a magical fantasy planet in which wizard's dominance is about to fall to the high-tech might of cyborgs and robots.  Who knows?  Maybe they'll even buy it?

Every tattoo tells a story

I can only speak for myself when I say that writing is a favorite form of self expression, but sometimes, it's just one small path towards that self expression.  In March of 2006, the pressures of a new baby, born under difficult conditions, overwhelmed me.  In the darkest hours of the night, I asked a nurse for a few sheets of paper and penned the final chapter in my book Alorya.  I remembered the process being painful because it just wasn't enough.  I would have preferred going out and doing something reckless and dangerous, but on planet earth, that's generally something a brand new dad should not do while his newborn son is in NICU.

In 1998, I went to a tattoo parlor with my brother so both of us could get tattoo's before he got married.  It wasn't much of a bachelor party.  We went to 7-11 and got Slurpee's and then headed off to Gothic Soul, which was a pretty cool tattoo shop on Staten Island, at the time.  It was the only time I had ink done, in which I had zero self expression.  I wasn't sure about the whole tattoo thing.  I always imagined those with tattoo's to be real baddasses.  I was too skinny to be a badass.  I ended up getting a panther on my right shoulder.  It had no soul, but it was nicely done.  The only bad part about it was the fact that it wasn't me.  In fact, the panther on the shoulder during the 90's was the most cliche' tattoo in America.

By 2002, I was getting a little more imaginative.  1976 was the year of the dragon, so I while I was in El Paso, TX I got a dragon symbol on my left forearm.  It was still incredibly cliche, but it wasn't your typical dragon, so that made it better.  Still, by this point, I didn't have any tattoo's that are truly me.

 

I had wanted to get a tattoo of a snake eating it's tail on my ring finger in 2005.  It was the symbol for infinity or eternity and I thought, "What better tattoo to show my love and devotion to my wife?".  Right about now, I want to bring up the fact that you should really choose your tattoo artist wisely.  I went on a recommendation that this guy was good and the artwork he had around his shop would agree.  The thing I should have been looking for, but I had not, was how he typically drew snakes.  Afterwards, I noticed they all had that "Cobra about to strike" look about them.  When I looked down to my ring finger, the tattoo didn't actually look like a snake eating its tail, but a cobra about to strike its' tail (for some reason).  I really thought it was a great idea, but was poorly executed.

 

 

I have just gotten my book cover tattooed on my left shoulder in quarter-sleeve fashion.  So far, it's just the outline, but I think the potential is infinite.  The artist is really talented and the work he's doing is fantastic.  On that night, back in 2006, I wish I could have run out and gotten the tattoo.  The one I've got on my left shoulder hadn't been completely formulated just yet, but sitting in that chair, going through the pain of getting the tattoo would have really hit the spot that night.  On the other hand, as I had mentioned in referencing the above tattoo stories, it would have mostly likely been a disaster.  You should never run out to get a tattoo without first knowing what you want to get, AND having a copy of the artwork you want done with you.

 

 

Next week, when I've completely my tattoo, I'll post the finished product, along with some more stories of my other tattoos.  As you can probably tell by the pattern of tattoos I had done through the years, the more recent tattoos are better thought out and more meaningful for me.  Here's a sample of what I have so far...