I’ve had an exhausting, but awesome day! Therèse from Pink Ink Tattoo Studio came to do my tattoo, or should I say tattoos. The whole session took about five hours, and it hurt like a motherf*cker when she tattooed my wrist, across the tendon. I don’t think I’ll do the other arm anytime soon, that’s for sure!

My first and foremost tattoo was one I’ve been thinking about and planning for several years, I kid you not. It’s something as unusual as a toon version of myself. She’s depicted standing up (as opposed to sitting in a wheelchair), she’s got my hair and my brown eyes, she’s wearing one of the outfits I’ve been obsessing the most about (ask anyone who knows me, I’ve got 18 skirts like that in my closet) with matching boots. She’s also wearing a halo around her ankle to underline the fact that she’s not quite as innocent as she appears to be. Looks can be deceiving. And I love it! Therèse did a fabulous job, and I can’t stop admiring her. She’s covering most of my underarm, reaching from my wrist to my elbow, and she’s done mainly in black and white. I’ll be posting some more pictures as she heals, she looks a lot better in real life than she does in the picture. What can I say? The shading is nothing less than awesome!

I clearly proved myself to me a real dare devil, because I actually had another tattoo done during the same session. My second tattoo is a paw print. A Chihuahua’s paw. Theo’s paw! I decided to place it directly above the wrist on my left hand, left since it’s the side of the heart, and pointing inwards towards my index finger. Now I will carry him with me forever.

Before she finished up she did some work on my finger tattoos, the ones I got at Trondheim Tattoo Convention in 2008. Unfortunately she couldn’t do much, but she managed to redo what was supposed to be a shamrock, or clover, so now it actually looks like a shamrock! She was able to change the lettering on my left hand a little, but the right hands is doomed. Sure, it looks a lot better now than it did before, but because the space on a finger is so limited there was little to be done with the actual script. I’ll be posting some pictures of the rest of the work as soon as they heal a little.

Thank you so, so much Therèse. You have no idea what you actually did for me today, I’m forever grateful, and I absolutely love my new jewels! It was really nice meeting you, and I’m pretty sure we’ll meet again in the near future.

Please respect that this is a personal tattoo, do not steal my picture!
Photo © Shamini Thevarajah 2010

I’ve been talking about getting another tattoo for a long time now, but I haven’t gotten around to it after I had to cancel the appointment I had with Elton at Flaming Heart here in Trondheim. I’m still a little sad about that. Well, Monica tipped me about Pink Ink Tattoo Studio in Oslo, and when I saw from her website that she was coming to Trondheim in May I decided to ask her whether or not she might have time to squeeze me in for a tattoo. I had already seen her sketches, and I began thinking that she might be the one to draw one of the ideas I’ve been brewing on for several years now. She accepted the challenge, and yesterday I received the first draft of my soon-to-be tattoo. I’m in love! She had captured my idea perfectly, even Øyvind said that it looked exactly as he had pictured it from hearing me describing it. She did magic with her pencil and conjured up the perfect tattoo for me, a tattoo I can’t wait to show off with pride.

It’s happening on May 7th, pictures will come as soon as it’s done.
Thank you a million times, Therèse!

Last August I made an appointment to get my fifth tattoo done at Flaming Heart Tattoo. Apparently this is a very popular studio, and having seen Elton’s work I certainly understand why. Unfortunately it turned out that there was a wait of about six months for the next free spot, and when the time arrived in the beginning of December I had to cancel my appointment due to the fact that I had just recovered from being sick for more than eight weeks. It was very disappointing, because I’d been looking forward to having ink done by Elton after the horrific disaster the last one turned out to be, but I just didn’t dare taking the chance on getting sick all over again. Now, I’m planning on going back there to see if we can give it another try, but I’m a little put off by the fact that there’s a small step to get into the studio, and no ramp. I prefer to take my electric wheelchair, but there’s no way in hell I’m getting in without a ramp. 150 kilos it a wee bit too much to lift.

Lately I’ve been thinking about something, a motif, I initially wanted to get as my very first tattoo, but since I can’t draw anything but stick figures and couldn’t find anyone wanting to draw something as permanent as a tattoo, I put my idea on hold. Now I’ve found a very nice tattooist, and I’ve been e-mailing back and forth with her about this idea. It seems very promising, and I’m kinda excited to see what she comes up with. And if everything goes according to my plan I’ll have ink done in the beginning of May – how cool is that? I’m not telling you anything else yet. You’ll see who, what and where whenever it’s finished.

I’m trying to enjoy the very last days of my summer vacation, but the thought of reality coming to bite me in the ass at 8am in the morning scares the hell out of me. I managed to get a whole lot of things done today as well, like going to the tailor with my gorgeous blue dress. See, curious as it may seem the dress was actually too small for me! I was thinking of exchanging it for a size bigger, but when I e-mailed their customer service I was told that the next size would be 4 centimeters more around hip, waist and bust. Since that was completely out of the question, I decided to take matters into my own hands. It was a little too small yes, but I wasn’t looking for a tent! So, I found a tailor in town, and presented my idea about making a slit down the back of the dress, and replacing the fabric with satin ribbons. At first the tailor didn’t sound too enthusiastic about doing it my way, but then he said that he could try and then make some smaller changes if it didn’t work the way I thought it would. Fantastic! He even showed me a wedding dress with the exact same back as I wanted on my dress, so I’m positive there was no misunderstanding. God, I hope it’ll be as I imagine.. if not, well.. then I’m without a dress for the wedding in September.

I also managed to cross something else I’ve been postponing for too long now off my list. I actually went to talk to the tattoo artist I’ve been wanting to see since last year’s Tattoo Convention here in Trondheim. Apparently not a minute too soon! After looking, looking and looking some more through the calendar they managed to squeeze me in in December. Yes, on the 4th of December. I’m finally going to get my finger tattoos fixed, and I have another idea brewing in the pit of my stomach. OK, I’m lying. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, but I’m not going to spill just yet. December was actually quite suitable, as it gives me some time to save up the money I’m going to need for this next tattoo escapade of mine. So now I have another thing to look forward to!

Don’t you just love it when the to-do-list shrinks, while the looking-forward-to-list expands?

Det går nesten ikke en dag uten at jeg savner dyrene mine. Kattene spesielt, men også chinchillaene som etterhvert ble en stor del av livet mitt over mange år. Jeg har fortsatt kontakt med mange i miljøet, og det hender rett som det er at de deler bilder, eller spør meg om ting – og det vekker savnet. Mange ganger skulle jeg ønske at jeg kunne samlet inn alle dyrene jeg har lånt ut til avl, og hentet noen av de jeg bestemte meg for å kvitte meg med da jeg ikke kunne ha dem stående hjemme lenger – men det går jo ikke, og tidvis gjør det vondt å tenke på. Det er likevel en trøst å vite at de fleste har det bra, noe de viser tydelig ved å legge på seg, og gi unger, men jeg skulle så gjerne hatt dem her.. hos meg. Hvem skulle vel trodd jeg ville savne å stikke nesa ned i en myk, varm chinchillapels?

Jeg har bestemt meg for å få tatovert på meg en chinchillafot etterhvert. Avtrykket skal være fra et av mine egne dyr, og det skal Gine forsøke å ordne for meg. Det er trist at jeg ikke tenkte tanken den gangen Olvon levde, for det er helt klart hans avtrykk jeg skulle hatt med meg resten av livet – men sånn ble det dessverre ikke. Dyrene kommer alltid til å bety veldig mye for meg, og derfor vil jeg bære med meg et fotavtrykk til ære for dyrene mine – som alle har bidratt på hver sine måter til å gjøre livet mitt så uendelig mye rikere.

Foto: Tellus Olvon © Shamini Thevarajah ’03