Tattoos

Two in one day! Aren't you lucky.

I'm still thinking about tattoos. As established in an earlier post, Mr. Wonderful is not so excited about tattoos on me. As a good partner I have been respectful of his not liking them, but that doesn't stop me from wanting one. It has stopped me from going out and getting one.. but maybe not for too much longer. One of Mr. Wonderful's issues with tattoos is that he likes the continuity of skin. As someone who is herself fascinated by skin (freckles rock), I can understand and respect that. I myself haven't settled on a place I would want to get different colors dyed into my skin for similar reasons. However, after a conversation this morning, I think we may have reached a compromise: the feet. In my younger years I wasn't as keen on feet tattoos, n part b/c I was still in an attention whorish phase and wanted all eyes on my body. Well, as I've gotten older, mellowed, and realized that being an attention whore isn't always the best professional choice, I've begun to rethink the feet and ankle. Living in California my feet are exposed frequently, almost regularly. I wouldn't have to worry about the effects of potential stretch mark sites, and Mr. Wonderful wouldn't be distracted by a colorful tattoo disrupting the visual continuity of my birthday suit.

Right now, my thought is to get a tattoo after I finish my dissertation. I'm giving myself time b/c i have two designs I really like and I'm not sure on placement. So, for input, here they are:

The first one, the Harp of Erin, is a design I've liked for a long time. My thesis will likely be on Ireland, I'm 1/4 Irish, and my sister's name is Erin. Plus, it's a pretty sweet design that isn't a shamrock or any sort of celtic style knotwork:


This next one follows in the vein of kungfu's tattoo philosophy: fuck meaning and just get something that looks totally rad. I give you the humuhumukunukunupua'a:

I love these fish. They are the national fish of Hawai'i and you can see them all over the reefs there. They're unique and have a cool color scheme. I've spent a lot of time chasing these guys about and Mr. Wonderful and I saw a ton of them while on our honeymoon. Another nice part of the humuhumu tattoo idea is that it would be easy to expand it into a mini reef if I wanted to.

I have some time and I'd love people's input if they have any. Harp: cool and has meaning; humuhumu: love the fish and unique as far as I can tell for fish tattoos (most people go the koi route). Oh, I've also decided to get my mom to draw and color whatever image I decided to go with and see if I can find a tattoo artist who is willing to work with her artwork.

What do you think?