The inking of an inking.

When last we spoke, I had gone to see Margaret Glaspy with a friend after dropping by a tattoo place and asking about a spiral fountain pen on my arm.

About two hours before the tattoo appointment (which was two weeks ago today and I really need to come by here more often), I started messing around with ideas, and I decided that a spiral fountain pen on the arm with my mountains would not be good. A spiral fountain pen on the arm with my Create makes much more sense.

I took a photo of my arm and then did this:
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(The ellipses were Jeff’s idea. It may be my favorite part.)

Anyway, let’s speed this up. I went to the place, I saw the guy, he showed me his drawing (big long fountain pen that would spiral around my wrist), I showed him my (admittedly shitty) drawing, he liked it, and off we went to the chair where he did this:
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And then he did this:
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And then I asked if we could make the pen nib clear instead of black for now and he was into it, but told me that he could add some grey with white shading later on if I wanted. And THEN he said, “If it’s okay with you, I sort of want to add stippling on the line of ink to give it a little more body.” And because I love anything that reminds me of splatters and sparks, I was in.

SO, he started stinging me repeatedly dotdotdotdotdotdotdotetc. with ink and two weeks have passed and now I have this:
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(You’ll have to ignore the peely parts. You’ll just have to.)

Here’s the top of my wrist. In other words, this is what most people will see.
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I really do love it, and it reminds me that I need to be doing something creative every single day. Because I do.

(Announcement: I’ve been writing a short story and I’m loving the process so much that I’m thinking about participating in National Novel Writing Month in November. Want to do it with me?) (And by “do it” I mean participate in National Novel Writing Month.) ‘ ‘ ‘text/javascript’>

10 thoughts on “The inking of an inking.”

  1. Will you share the details of what it takes to be a NNWM participant in November? Although I don’t think I have what it takes to tackle a novel, I also think it’s time to just jump in the deep end and use up some swimming energy. And see what comes of it.

  2. I love it! I love dot work tattoos, though. I have one on my forearm and want to expand on it with more dot work now.

  3. I’ve told you before, I’m just not crazy about tattoos. I’m pretty sure my daughter got her first one just to drive me crazy. But I also know that all you “kids” like body ink and I don’t hate it, I’m just not fond of it, and I have no desire to do it myself. (Side note, at my age, it would probably be too hard for them to find a smooth patch of skin to put something on.)

    But, I am very, very fond of creativity and your “create” on your arm was almost cool to me. It was cool, except that it was a tattoo, and I don’t “get” them.

    But now, I have to admit, I’ve seen one I think is very, very good. Using the pen nib as an extension of the existing word, then spiraling it around your wrist in an exotic stippling, and ending in ellipses is just something beautiful and truly creative and perfect. You’ve won me over. You got your skin all marked up with something that would make me smile and admire it if I saw it on a perfect stranger. Now that I think of it, you may be the most perfect stranger I know.

    I’d say you finally broke me, but I don’t feel broken. It’s more like I feel hipper than I did yesterday. Carry on. Now go write your novel.

  4. I love this so much. I’m not a tattoo gal myself, I like them on other people, I just can’t think of anything I’d put on myself. But this! This inspires me.

  5. Any update on the daith piercing? Curious for you, but also myself as I suddenly have started having migraines that DON’T respond within ten minutes to an OTC headache pill. That’s one pill, half of the recommended dose and I am not a tiny thing, either.

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