Everybody lies

posted on Wednesday, April, 11th, 2007 in Thursday Thirteen

This is my third T13-post. It really looks like I will keep this category alive for a while. I already have about 10 drafts for the following weeks. This one is posted a little early, I know. I guess, I just wanna make sure I don’t forget it. Especially after working on this post for so long.
Since I started watching Miami Ink on a more or less regular basis I am dying to get more tattoos. I have 2 already, one a dragon in tribal design on my left calf and the other an art-deco like curling vine on my right ankle and foot. I got them both while I was in New Zealand. Needless to say, my parents hate them, but they accepted them, because they are not visible most of the time. Before I went to NZ I never considered getting a really big one, but meanwhile I am thinking it might be worth a try. If I ever have enough money on my hand, and we’re talking hundreds, possibly thousands of Dollars here. So it may be a while before I can afford “the big one”, but I can certainly already think about what motif I would like to get inked. This list is what I came up with after 10 minutes or so. I’m sure, if I thought about it longer, I would get many more ideas. But seeing as I don’t have room for all of the 13 listed below, I should better stop thinking…

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1. A japanese style tiger and dragon around a yin/yang symbol on my back
I have seen Chris Garver doing the dragon half of such a tattoo on Miami Ink, and although I am usually not much of a fan of chinese dragons, this one looked intriguing. It would have to be pretty big, though, and would leave not much room for anything else on my back. This is Garver’s design with only the dragon finished:

Altogether it should end up looking something like that:

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2. A portrait of my dog

Of course, a talented tattoo artist could do a very realistic looking portrait of Jenny, but for an actual tattoo I would prefer something less realistic that could stand for all the dogs that shared my life. This one is not quite right (especially as it is meant to be a fox), but it comes close to the style I am thinking of:

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3. The Gunslinger and the Dark Tower amid a field of blood-red roses
This one is tricky. It is a motif from the “Dark Tower” series by Stephen King. I have a very clear picture of what it should look like in my head, but I can’t draw for shit and I haven’t found anything on the net that would have been quite right.


They are all nice tries, but not exactly right. And none of these has the field of roses.
The ones that do show the roses don’t get the tower right.

And anyway, Roland looks just plain wrong in all of them. It looks like it would take a very good artist and some very long discussions to get to the picture I really want. And then it would have to be so big to get all the detail in, that I couldn’t afford it anyway. Shame, really.
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4. Cherry blossoms
They are a very popular tattoo motif, because of their meaning (life is short, but beautiful, everything is fleeting like the fragile leaves of the blossoms, blah, blah, blah). But as much as I admire that sentiment and japanese culture as such, I just don’t like the stylized japanese version of cherry blossoms, which looks roughly like that:

It just doesn’t look in the least like a cherry blossom to me, more like some random flower drawn by a child. If I’d get a tattoo with this motif, I’d go with something a little more realistic-looking.

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5. The symbol for “unfound” from the Dark Tower books
If you haven’t read the Dark Tower books it would take too long to explain the meaning of this, but it looks basically like this:

I love the symbol, I love what it stands for and I think it looks pretty, too. So this looks like a good candidate for my next one…
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6. A quote from LOTR in elvish script
Aynthing from “The Lord of the Rings”, really. Something like “Not all who wander are lost” would be quite fitting for me. I am a big fan of Tolkien and I would love to show that somewhere on my body. And elvish script just looks pretty as well.

The only downside would be that I would have to actually learn how to write it – and how to read it – before I got the tattoo, because one of my principles is to never get anything written on me in a strange script that I can’t actually read. Hence, no kanji or chinese tattoos for me, as pretty as they may look. (For the only exception from the rule, look at number 13.)
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7. A female gunslinger
A companion for my Roland. She would have to be looking like a mixture of Zoe Washburn, Lara Croft and Buffy Summers.



Kickass girls. Can you tell I like strong women?
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8. A dragon
This is another tricky one. Of course, everybody and his dog has got a dragon tattoo nowadays. I’ve got one myself already, as I’ve mentioned before. This one, again, is one I have a very definitve picture of in my head. And I don’t even try to find it on the net, because I know it doesn’t exist.
I don’t want an asian dragon for this, because like I said, I have a problem with them in general. Firstly, I don’t like the fact that they have beards and antlers, and secondly – and much more importantly – they lack wings. A dragon without wings is no dragon. It’s a snake.
So what I want is a more european style dragon. With wings. And no antlers. This one here, apart from being white, looks quite good:

The color is wrong, of course. As is the head. The head is always wrong. In all the hundreds of pictures I have found so far, nobody got the head right. And there goes another long discussion with my tattoo artist…
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9. Falling autumn leaves or flowers
This one is easy, because I got the idea from seeing the actual tattoo. It was designed by Jeff Gouge, who by the way is an awesome artist.

Of course it is considered very bad taste to copy somebody elses tattoo, but luckily I just want to steal the idea, because I would want it somewhere else on my body anyway, to keep the back free for other pieces.
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10. A lizard
I don’t know why. I just love lizards. I’ve got a thing for reptiles anyway.
I wouldn’t want to get a tat of a snake, though. Or a crocodile. Or anything else reptilian.
I want a lizard.
Not even a gecko, necessarily, although they can be quite cute. Especially the colorful ones.

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11. A phoenix
This idea, again, was inspired by watching Miami Ink. This time it was not a tattoo done by Garver, but surprisingly, by Nunez.
Surprisingly, because I consider Nunez a mediocre artist most of the time. But sometimes he shows signs of real talent. This design was one of those moments.



It looks absolutely fantastic. Again, I wouldn’t want a copy of that one, but the general style is very beautiful. Although in tribal style it would be interesting as well:

There are even creatures that look like a mix between a dragon and a phoenix:

Actually, I think I like this last one best.
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12. Any design made by Chris Garver

I have mentioned before that I am a big fan of Garver’s work. Almost everything I have seen him do at Miami Ink was awesome. Because he is so good, it is quite hard to get an appointment with him, but I think it would be worth the wait.
It really wouldn’t matter what kind of design he tattooed on me, as long as it’s a genuine Garver.
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13. The word SERENITY written in front of the chinese symbols of the same meaning
Well, this one is easy. It looks exactly like this, minus the black background obviously:

This is the one case where I would sidestep my rule about “no unreadable languages on my body”, because I have read enough webpages about the chinese signs used in Firefly and Serenity to be quite sure that these signs actually mean something like serenity. Plus, this isn’t only about the literal meaning of the word. It’s about what the movie, the tv show, the ship itself and all the Browncoat stuff means to me. That’s why I want the official logo and not something just similar.
And this is exactly the reason I can’t get this tattoo, yet. Because my rule number 2 about tattooing is to not get a tattoo about anything I have been obsessed with for less than 2 years – at the least. Now, I’m pretty sure that Firefly and Serenity will stand the test of time and stay right up there with LOTR and The Dark Tower books, alas, I have to wait and see. Good thing I don’t have money enough for several tattoos at the moment.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. Thomma Lyn
2. Lene
3. Mark Caldwell
4. PJ
5. Vader’s Mom
6. Coco
7. Gabrielle
8. Nicole
9. Michelle
10. Christine
11. Kim
12. Gabriella
13. Fence
14. Lulu
15. she
16. Tonya
17. qtpies7
18. Kristin
19. Amelia Elias
20. Jen
21. Raggedy
22. Jessica
23. Janet
24. Amy Jo
25. Carol
26. Jessica The Rock Chick
27. (leave a comment and I’ll add you)