Multi.Colored—tattooed people, tattoo dreams

I guess I should have pointed my family to my blitherings here, because I wasn’t given anything specifically tattoo related for Christmas.

Actually, I think what I need most of all is a recommendation to a great new local shop.  I have a friend who is an insanely talented artist, and I would love to commission her to do me a design for a sleeve that will incorporate my very first tattoo, my seven stars.  Then, of course, I’d need an artist with a shop that doesn’t take an hour to drive to, through heavy traffic.

Clearly, it is time to start looking. 

Those of you who celebrated Christmas today, I hope you got everything you wanted.

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I wish I had good, professional photographs of myself, showing my tattoos to their best advantage. I don’t think I’m particularly photogenic, but I’d like to have a record of my ink, if only so my kids can show their kids (if they ever have kids, that is) what a multicolored nut their Granny was.

So, as my final holiday-gift suggestion–a session with a good photographer, and at least one good print. Our ink is art, and deserves to be treated as such. A photographer can make a record of what we are, and what our multicolored bodies say about ourselves, to preserve us, in a way, for the ages.

Non-inked people sometimes bring up the issue of “what will that look like after you’ve sagged.” This is another way of saying “Who cares, I know what it looks like now.”

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The last post about crystal tattoos got me to thinking about temporary tattoos in general.

Temporary tattoos have a long and glorious history. The art of mehndi has been practiced for thousands of years in India, adjacent countries and the Middle East. Henna paste is applied to the skin in elaborate patterns, allowed to dry, and then washed off, leaving stains on the skin which slowly fade over time. Creating original designs is a true art form, but nowadays we can apply our own henna designs with a bit of patience and a steady hand.

Other ancient people painted their skin with woad, red ochre, and other natural colors to make semi-permanent or truly temporary body art. While woad-it-yourself kits aren’t exactly a hot seller these days, you can buy body paint like TempTu (with or without patterns for tattoo designs) and paint yourself any color you like–at least to the capacity of the small jars in the kit. Amazon lists all kinds of interesting possibilities if you do a search with the term “body paint.”

When I was a kid, temporary tattoos were of the lick-and-stick comic-character variety. As you can imagine, the image quality produced by a thin sheet of tissue paper moistened with saliva and plastered on your arm was… um, not exactly stellar. Nowadays, we have a lot more choices. I knew that tattoos had finally made the mainstream when I discovered a store selling temporary tattoos right across from the ferris wheel in Disneyland California Adventure.

You can also buy software to design your own tattoos (and special paper to print your designs on). These seem mostly aimed at kids, but there’s nothing to say you can’t dump the Hot Wheels motifs and make your own.

Making a temporary tattoo is a great way to try out the size, color, and placement of ink you’re considering making permanent. I’m seriously considering having a bracelet done, and I want to make sure that’s what I really want before I take the plunge.

There’s still time to do a lot of exploring and a lot of painting!

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Our local paper, the Los Angeles Daily News, tends to be conservative. Which is why I was so surprised to see a small item in their “LA.COM” section titled “Tattoos as Fine Art.”

It wasn’t, alas, a glowing review of local tattoo parlors, but it’s nearly as good. Ziba Beauty is now featuring a line of “jewel tattoos” (self adhesive designs with brilliant crystals) that are based on traditional designs from India. The pictures on the web site are really spectacular.

So if you’re looking for something way out of the ordinary to wear to that holiday party, a great place to start is here.

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The other night, I was walking in Old Town Pasadena and passed the big tattoo/piercing parlor. In their window, they had a sign offering gift certificates.

Whoa!

I never thought about a gift certificate to a tattoo parlor before, but it makes a lot of sense. If your favorite multicolored person has a favorite artist, it can’t hurt to call the shop and ask if they offer gift certificates. You might not be able to pay for a whole tattoo, but if you gave someone a gift card, it would go a long way toward aftercare supplies, body jewelry or the like.

Cards, cards and more cards

Of course, your gift card or gift certificate doesn’t have to be from the tattoo parlor (though I am sure the shop owner would appreciate your pre-paying for goodies of some kind). You can give the gift of skin care (at a local spa, or from someplace like Bath & Body Works) or reading material (at a local bookstore). I’m all in favor of supporting local businesses whenever possible. But then again, if you give an Amazon gift card, there are a bazillion different items there for the buying.

Thinking and inking

The main idea, of course, is to consider what your favorite multicolored person really wants. The old saw that “it’s the thought that counts” means a lot more than might appear. If you really put some thought into something, it counts for a lot. In this brightly colored season, let’s see how we can make our brightly colored selves shine!

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Tattooed people can never get enough nice skin care products. Gotta keep that ink looking good, and not covered with dry flaky skin, right? Today I’m going to make some recommendations of products I have personally used.

Note: As far as I know, these are for all skin types, but if your intended recipient is known to have allergies or sensitive skin, perhaps a gift certificate to an appropriate store would be a better idea, so he or she can choose the products that would work best.

Thanks to my friend Sue for the angel!

I’m providing links to the products on drugstore.com, just simply because I know they provide full descriptions of the various ingredients. All these items are available just about everywhere.

Burt’s Bees Hand Salve. This contains the same ingredients as the pricey tattoo-only skin care products. Great for aftercare.

A related product: Burt’s Bees Miracle Salve. This is a general purpose hand and body creme that helps keep your skin soft and protected from the elements.

A Burt’s Bees skin care sample kit. You may not want everything that is in it, but these are small sample sizes so you can figure out what you do and don’t like, inexpensively and without waste.

Burt’s Bees Carrot Lotion. This stuff smells great, absorbs quickly and is good for dry skin.

From other manufacturers:
Nivea Essentially Enriched Lotion. This is what I use every day on my hands. Doesn’t have a heavy scent and rubs in quickly and completely.

Nivea Creme. This stuff is very thick. A small tin will last you forever. I started using this on my feet, and realized it would do a good job on my perpetually-itchy ankle tattoo. Coincidence or not, the swelling finally went down and the itching stopped after about a month of my applying this every couple days.

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Tattooed people tend to be rugged individualists, right? So we don’t need no steenkin’ shoppin’ at all… right?

No, I didn’t think so either.

Following my personal philosophy of think… plan… go for it, I present a few suggestions for yourselves or for that multicolored Someone Else. I haven’t read all of these myself, but I plan to. If you’ve read them, I hope you’ll give me a book review in the comments.
Books, food for thought

The Total Tattoo Book, by Amy Krakow

The Tattoo Encyclopedia : A Guide to Choosing Your Tattoo by Terisa Green

500 Tattoo Designs by Henry Ferguson

Ink: The Not-Just-Skin-Deep Guide to Getting a Tattoo by Ph.D., Terisa Green

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