Tattoos Of Memories And Dead Skin On Trial

My first tattoo came in the form of the Japanese character for eternity. I know it's cheesy, but having lived in Japan, having got it during the year I lived in Japan, I think it fits on my a lot better than all those other people who tend to get Japanese kanji tattoos. Oh and yes, I double checked that it actually meant eternity before getting it done. That was 8 years ago.

I knew I wanted another one, but I just couldn't decide on exactly what and exactly where on me. I seemed to be stuck on the idea of an image that was a tribute to my grandma. I had this perfect image in my head of what I wanted it to look like: a snowman that looked like the one from claymation Rudolph (she collected snowmen) holding a teddy bear (which she also loved and sorta collected) with either angel wings or a halo. It was meant to mimic a Christmas ornament that I had given to her years ago, that she kept out all year round. It looked perfect in my head, but with worse artistic skills than a 3 year old, there was no way I could design it, and I don't know that I trusted that anyone else could get it just right. Plus I had no idea where on me to put it. It seemed to fit the back of my shoulder in the guardian angel kind of way, but I wanted a tattoo that I could actually see this time (my other one is on my back, and I usually forget it even exists to be honest).

Eventually I just did a Google image search, and it took me quite a while, but eventually I came across this.

I loved it. It was Christmas-y, and with a few minor tweaks (that Nick could easily handle in PhotoShop) it would be perfect. I always associate the song Silver Bells with being in my grandma's kitchen at Christmas time, playing on the little radio she always had on in the corner. It was always a version like this one, not quite gospel singers, but close. So change the bells to silver, and I still had my tribute to my grandma.

Surprisingly I didn't think on it as long as I thought I would have. Once I knew that's what I wanted, I went for it within just a couple of months. It took a bit of time deciding where to put it, but I settled on my ankle; I really don't mind showing off some Christmas spirit in summer time sandals.


Here's Nick's modified version (for some reason I liked it better flipped since it's on my right ankle). The peach background was just to get an idea of how it would look on skin. The biggest change was really just the colour of the bells; apparently it's difficult to do silver, both in PhotoShop and a real tattoo.

 And here's how it turned out:

This was literally the afternoon I got it done, so it looks a little healthier now, but you get the idea. The red looks a little deeper, which is nice. I can still pick out a few tiny things that I don't love about it (the bells don't look perfectly circular and there's a snowflake missing, nor are any of them white) but as a whole, I'm happy with it. I love having Christmas on me all the time. I can't wait till summer to show it off more.