yesterday we had our very long awaited appointment with lil rob at tattoo magic in southampton.
i have long wanted to incorporate the sun/moon and celtic knot on my right arm into one larger piece of work and had a vague idea of what i wanted.
as most of you now know i am history lover, and most of my love is for pre-history.
when we travel around i track our route and know where we are by the sacred sites, hill forts and barrows
.
and of course my love is for the ancestors~my direct ancestors and those of the land as a whole.
given the the spread of early human migration we have to be aware of our own connections to these early humans~consider the matrilineal descent we women have that goes back to 'mitochondrial eve' and 'the seven daughters of eve' who are said to be 'clan mothers' and are the common matrilial ancestors of all humans.
"...man is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots,
whose flower and fruitage is the world..."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
but what has this to do with tattoo's? i hear you cry
well the 'vague idea' i had for my tattoo developed into an ongoing project based on the tattoo's of prehistoric ancestors.
tattooing of both men and women was a part of many prehistoric cultures as seen with the pazyryk mummies~including the 'ice maiden'~scroll down here and you can enlarge the photo showing some of her tattoo's, otzi the ice mummy and takla makan mummies of the tarim basin.
of course we can never know why they were tattooed although it has been suggested that they have a spiritual significance.
interestingly some of the tattoos on otzi were groups of short, parallel, vertical lines and it has been suggested that because of their placement and the research, which revealed he suffered with problems linked to the tattooed areas, suggest they were somehow linked to pain relief from acupressure or acupuncture.
the 3000 year old mummies of the tarim basin were a people with long red/blond/brown hair and european features and their clothes were associated with the celtic hallstatt culture.
there are lots of photos of all of these these if you do a search of the 'tinterweb and an article about the tarim basin mummies from 2006 here
~by golly am i drifting off subject today, i blame my new pain killers for making me feel slightly drunk right now~anyway...i wanted my new tattoo to reflect this huge love of mine (cant you just tell by my ramblings here today?!) and i want something quite random and primitive but at the same time have a kind of flowing connection.
i had to hunt the 'tinterweb for those elusive images, small pieces of a whole, and printed them for jon to come up with something freehand.
as most of you now know i am history lover, and most of my love is for pre-history.
when we travel around i track our route and know where we are by the sacred sites, hill forts and barrows
.
and of course my love is for the ancestors~my direct ancestors and those of the land as a whole.
given the the spread of early human migration we have to be aware of our own connections to these early humans~consider the matrilineal descent we women have that goes back to 'mitochondrial eve' and 'the seven daughters of eve' who are said to be 'clan mothers' and are the common matrilial ancestors of all humans.
"...man is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots,
whose flower and fruitage is the world..."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
but what has this to do with tattoo's? i hear you cry
well the 'vague idea' i had for my tattoo developed into an ongoing project based on the tattoo's of prehistoric ancestors.
tattooing of both men and women was a part of many prehistoric cultures as seen with the pazyryk mummies~including the 'ice maiden'~scroll down here and you can enlarge the photo showing some of her tattoo's, otzi the ice mummy and takla makan mummies of the tarim basin.
of course we can never know why they were tattooed although it has been suggested that they have a spiritual significance.
interestingly some of the tattoos on otzi were groups of short, parallel, vertical lines and it has been suggested that because of their placement and the research, which revealed he suffered with problems linked to the tattooed areas, suggest they were somehow linked to pain relief from acupressure or acupuncture.
the 3000 year old mummies of the tarim basin were a people with long red/blond/brown hair and european features and their clothes were associated with the celtic hallstatt culture.
there are lots of photos of all of these these if you do a search of the 'tinterweb and an article about the tarim basin mummies from 2006 here
~by golly am i drifting off subject today, i blame my new pain killers for making me feel slightly drunk right now~anyway...i wanted my new tattoo to reflect this huge love of mine (cant you just tell by my ramblings here today?!) and i want something quite random and primitive but at the same time have a kind of flowing connection.
i had to hunt the 'tinterweb for those elusive images, small pieces of a whole, and printed them for jon to come up with something freehand.
i had also had a chat with jon when we went into speak with him about what we wanted because of my fibro i was worried about the pain being more than usual, he advised an anesthetic cream to be applied to numb the area.
now, i have seven tattoos and the pain tattooing causes does not bother me-its a nice hurt if that makes sense.
well the pain of the thin initial outlines of this new one was bad...really bad.
either i did not put on enough cream, or it had worn off while i was waiting for swampy to be finished in the chair.
either i did not put on enough cream, or it had worn off while i was waiting for swampy to be finished in the chair.
when he changed needles to do the thicker lines it was fine, just like the pain i remember-still after an hour and a half i was glad it was over...until my next session in two weeks to freshen up the two older tattoo's i had done when i was 21 and finish my new work...
these three were taken about two hours after it was finished, red and sore
yesterday it has settled down an awful lot...
today it is better still and i have some bruising under my arm where it is most sensitive and i am impatient for my second session to arrive!