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Finishing my right sleeve
Last Thursday marked the end of a five-year journey to completely sleeve out both my arms in Japanese-style tattoos.
When I moved to Dallas in 1999, I decided I wanted to get a tattoo. At that time in my life, I was trying to decide whether or not to remain married. And regardless of what my decision would be, I resolved that I would no longer allow my inner self be suppressed, as I had tolerated for the previous eleven years. No matter what, I had finally had enough and wanted desperately to be myself again rather than only what others thought I should be.
Originally, I had wanted to get a traditional-looking scroll with the words “Live Free or Die” due to my long time admiration for the historical motto by Patrick Henry. But after shopping around several tattoo shops and looking at a bunch of different artists’ portfolios, I decided instead to get the word meaning unbound/unchained in Sanskrit. I liked the artistic look of the word form as well as the fact that it allowed me to have a somewhat-private meaning. At the time, I only got that one small word, not knowing I’d later come back and add to it.
In the following years, I would build on that small foray into body modification, adding several elements that became a half-sleeve on one arm, and then the other (the slow progress, of course, dictated by limited funds). 
(Here’s what it looked like in 2007, when the word had been built out into a half-sleeve)
Last year, I decided to go all the way and extend the artwork down to my wrists. Thursday’s session was the end of that process.
Here, Casey was working on coloring/shading the first peony. He balanced the pretty orange hues with some magenta shading that really popped the whole flower rather nicely.
Did I mention that getting tattooed on the elbow is kinda no fun?
Here’s the finished yellow peony on my elbow.
And here’s the orange one. In Japanese-style tattoos, the peony represents good fortune and prosperity. I’ve also read that it symbolizes “a sort of gambling daring and even a masculine devil-may-care attitude.” Sounds pretty good to me.
Also, the peony is a perennial, meaning that it seems to die out in the fall but comes back with new flowers in the spring, as though rising from the ashes like the phoenix. That made it a natural to add to my right sleeve (which I designed to have a rebirth theme since I had started it as I was going through my divorce). It features a koi fish on my upper arm, a dragonfly on the back of my tricep and a phoenix across my shoulder and chest.
I’ll need to go back and look at all my pictures in order to estimate how many hours I’ve had in this sleeve, but I’d estimate it at about 25-30. It’s been an enlightening process, not just in how to endure pain (and the odd desire to undergo the process time and time again), but one of self-examination as well. It’s a bittersweet feeling to be finished with both arms. But I’m extremely happy with the result and am already planning what I want for a full back piece!
Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT
