I wanted to start a sleeve on my 18th birthday. Instead, I started a calf piece. I went for five hours and we had to stop because my artist had an appointment. He was really good, but heavy handed too. The sleeve I wanted to be was a faery scene. About a year and a half later I met Remi. He did a tattoo of a happy pegasus on my right arm, with a cute background with negative space and such. He had a book of faeries and gave me a great deal on one of his favourites (and my personal favourite) faery. It was a backpiece.
At A Glance Author San Contact San@bme.anon IAM BlueStar When Three months ago Artist Remi Studio Artistic Impressions Location Niagara Falls, ON I wanted a sleeve. I self injure. I wanted to cover those. My right arm wasn't as bad as my left arm, but it was still lined with scars. Luckily only a couple keloided, those were the ones I did for ?fun? while in mental institutions (party trick!), or to piss my friends off: putting cigarettes out on myself. I'm not proud of this and I wanted it gone. My mom and I discussed options. I tried Mederma, until an entire tube was gone. The fairly recent scars hardly faded. I crossed the border again and tried another scar cream. Same results.
My choices: Plastic surgery, or tattoo.
My right arm was well enough that I could get away with tattooing it. My left arm, however, needs plastic surgery if I ever want to wear short sleeves again. Once again, I'm not proud of this and rarely show my arms. My parents know I self injure, but they don't know how seriously. (I hid 9 stitches from them a year ago.) I stopped self injuring as constantly as I had before, thanks to a drug called Luvox, which helps obsessive compulsive behavior. Okay, I'm done with the abnormal psychology lecture here!
Remi saw my wrists after the damage was done. He said he could do a sleeve in a couple of months. So we did my backpiece. I wanted that first anyways, we were going to work on my arm but I suggested my backpiece and his eyes just lit up. It turned out great, so I went to him again.
I was in hypo-manic mode one night and went to get pierced, I think. I was talking to Remi about the sleeve. I wanted My Little Pony's. I was an equestrian until I had a bad fall in which I broke my jaw. I just don't get the same enjoyment out of riding as I used to. I do like being around the horses though. My Little Pony's shaped my childhood! I still collect them. I have over fifty. Remi said to go get the ponies, since he wasn't an experienced My Little Pony artist and I ran into Eric (who introduced me to Remi initially) and it gave me more motive to go home and get the ponies, since Eric had stuff at my house.
I got the ponies, and showed them to Remi. I got teased over them, a lot. I picked out five of my favourite. Some are unicorns, most of them have stars or rainbows. One has a UFO. He scheduled me for 7:00pm the next day. Cool. I gave him the ponies and arranged them in his booth so they were visible.
The next day I went, fairly nervous (I still get nervous, weird) and Remi took the ponies, and drew on my arm in red. He was wearing gloves, my arm was sprayed down and everything. Then he went for a cigarette break. Might I mention he was running behind a bit. It was a Thursday so they were open until 10pm. He drew over the red in black and it made more sense. I okayed it and he explained what he drew. Then he had another cigarette, and got a coffee.
The ponies were in a swirl of stars and oriental style clouds. He said that he would ghost-line the tattoo because we didn't have much time until closing. He warned me where the shitty spots are and it was a fairly easy tattoo to get. The underside of my wrist was worst, but I've hacked it open with a razor blade and stitched it shut with fishing line and a 25ga needle before, so it wasn't that bad. Around my elbow was annoying.
After about 45 minutes I left with my ghost-line. People kept asking why I drew on my arm in pen. I made an appointment for 3 weeks later, because I had exams all the days he was free. I came in for my appointment, and he was nowhere to be found. A month went by, so I found another artist. (He did show up but none of us really trusted him after that.)
To be continued...