By Anonymous · April 05, 2010 · 0 comments
I'd wanted a tattoo for a good couple of years before I turned 18. I'd toyed with numerous ideas but couldn't seem to settle on any design for long enough. When I finally reached my 18th birthday, I was still undecided so I didn't think about it too much. I ended up getting my nape pierced instead and that preoccupied me for long enough to forget about getting a tattoo. About a month later, I started to get bored again and started to scour BME for inspiration. I decided I'd quite like something on my wrist and not long after ...
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By Castor · April 05, 2010 · 0 comments
So, time to write the story of my first tattoo. I have wanted a tattoo for many years, but have never really had a ‘set’ picture of what I want, all I have known is that I have wanted an oriental dragon. Then, out of the blue I received a message in my inbox from Brendan, a brilliant tattooist from Brisbane who was coming down to Sydney for the Tattoo and Body Art Expo, seeing if anyone was interested in getting tattooed by him while he was down. I have been a huge fan of his style for ages (he ...
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By Ekh · April 05, 2010 · 0 comments
When I had my Americanophilic period I became fascinated by the artist Jenny Holzer, and perhaps especially the story of how she one morning in 1982 let the big electronic light board in Times Square Manhattan advertise message like "Ambivalence can ruin your life", "Murder has its sexual side" and "Everything that's interesting is new ". I don’t know much more about the incident but it was enough for me. I loved the idea, truisms instead of advertising in an urban landscape, that she had chosen to work in such an artificial material, as light boards in New York - ...
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By Anonymous · Dec. 29, 2009 · 0 comments
E"Ext-Inked 2009, the year in which the world celebrates Charles Darwin's bicentennial birthday, Ultimate Holding Company ( a Manchester based arts collective www.uhc.org.uk ) embarks on a once in a lifetime social experiment. With the expert assistance of several prominent conservation charities and the artistry of tattooists from Ink Vs Steel, Ultimate Holding Company have created ExtInked. An exhibition of drawings, individually illustrating one hundred of the most endangered species in the British Isles with the live tattooing of the drawings on one hundred willing volunteers" I read the flyer and thought. Yes. This is perfect. Right up my ...
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By Anonymous · Dec. 29, 2009 · 0 comments
So I had been wanting to get a tattoo since I was 17 or so, but I didn't want to rush into getting something that didn't have some sort of lasting meaning in my life. Around my 19th birthday I came up with a design I liked of a tenor saxophone placed over black and white checkers (I'm a big fan of ska music, both modern and going back all the way to Jamaica in the 60's). I've been playing saxophone since I was 10 and it has become not only my main hobby but the focus of my college ...
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By Anonymous · Dec. 29, 2009 · 1 comments
The one question I've always hated the most when people see my tattoos is the inevitable "what does it mean?" I don't really have an issue giving some explanation to the people who ask me, but most of the time, I'd just rather not. This is not because I'm a prick and don't have time for the un-tattooed masses, no. The explanation is sometimes just as painful as the tattoo, and really, having the tattoo in the first place is enough. Undoubtedly, most of the people here have stories or memories associated with their tattoos painful, funny, embarrassing, or ...
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By Anonymous · Dec. 21, 2009 · 0 comments
Ever since I can remember, I've been fascinated with tattoos. I've wanted one since before I started high school, but knew it was a no go, at least until I turned eighteen. My father died when I was eight months old. Therefore I have no memories of him. I do, however, have several items of his clothing and people have told me things about him, et cetera. He used to sing the song Forever Young by Bob Dylan to me, when getting me to sleep or whilst bathing me. My grandparents had the lyrics printed and framed for a gift ...
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By Anonymous · Dec. 21, 2009 · 0 comments
It's been two years since I got my first tattoo. My recollection at this point is a little hazy, but I'll put together what I can. It was April 2007, and I'd been wanting a tattoo, but I had no idea *what*. When the news came through that Kurt Vonnegut had died, I knew what it would be -- Vonnegut was my favourite author all through high school and beyond, and Slaughterhouse-Five has always held a very special place in my heart. I opted for the phrase "So it goes" -- as a tribute to Vonnegut and to that book ...
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By Anonymous · Dec. 14, 2009 · 0 comments
If someone would have told me even just two or three years ago, "By the time you're twenty, you'll have three tattoos and be contemplating on getting things pierced other than your lobes," I'd have thought he was off his rocker. I'd never given a lot of thought to body modification before - the pain is what put me off, for the most part, seeing as how I'm a very big wuss. I never even ventured to get my lobes done until a couple of weeks before I turned nineteen. I only had one friend in school with any sort ...
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By Anonymous · Dec. 08, 2009 · 0 comments
I'm come to tattooing perhaps way too early in life. In the years between my 14th and 18th birthdays I acquired between 10-12 (depending on how you look at it) tattoos with my parent's approval. At that time I took tattoos to be a fashion statement rather then the form of personal express I now view them as many years later. Impulsive as a teen I made a few bad tattooing mistakes (Actually I just made a lot of mistakes in general). But one tattoo in particular was an experience that has affected me throughout my adult life. After high ...
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