A Little Ink

Ah, The 3 AM ceiling stare. I guess I have a lot on my mind. I polished off my current book and then picked up my iPad and started sketching my tattoo. I’ve been drawing a lot from photos lately, it felt good to just draw from life. Hands are notoriously hard to capture, so judge gently please ;-)

I thought about this tattoo for a long time before committing to it. I used to do workshops about identifying your core values. It’s actually a pretty cool process to go through. Mine were easy to spot; adventure, bravery, creativity and community. When I’m aligned with those values everything seems to flow. When things are more jagged in my world it always takes me a bit, but then I remember and check in with these four tenets, and there’s usually something out of whack. I am I operating from fear? Forgetting to water my friends? I circle back, adjust, and usually get back on course pretty quickly.

The day I got this done was completely unplanned. I was in Canada for a short visit; seeing a show at the VAG with my college buddies. I’d had a spectacularly tough week; two people close to me had passed away unexpectedly and on top of that I’d had some personal and professional disruptions that really shook me. I was in a spin. I was glad to be spending time with old friends. I knew that would help. When the show was done and there were only two of us left I turned to my friend and asked if she wanted to go on an adventure. Of course she did. It’s one of the things that had always bonded us. We hopped in the car, made a few phone calls to get a good recommendation, and ended up in a great little tattoo shop on Cambie. I’d designed this and drawn it on my arm many times to test drive it and make sure I loved it. I still did. I showed a pic of my design sketched on my forearm to the artist and he went to work. I’m still happy with it, and it does its job, keeping this important reminder up front where I can see it.

Here’s a quick timelapse. I had fun with the gingham background. It was an afterthought. My arm was actually lying on top of my duvet, which was way more complex, so I gave myself a break and invented this. Fast and easy, and I like how it turned out :-)

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