Ink Tales: Number Eight

Just three months later, I got my latest tattoo. It was one I'd wanted to get for awhile too (and actually had two appointments for it scheduled, but because of scheduling I never got it done). I really wanted an owl tattoo. First of all, I just like owls because they are adorable animals (as long as I'm not actually near one...deathly afraid of all bird's talons). Second, owls symbolize wisdom and are often associated with school and books. I have tons of owl items (a welcome statue, a cuckoo whistle, wall decals, jewelry, wallet, camera case, contact case, wine stoppers, etc.), but one that stood out was a statue on my dresser of a great horned owl sitting on top of a stack of books. After much consideration (did I want a colorful, cute owl? a colorful realistic owl? a wise owl? a rustic owl?) I decided to go with a classic great horned owl outlined and shaded in blue sitting on books. I gave Jimmy the basic concept and waited to see what he came up with.

He drew a very classic owl on books and added ink and a quill in his feet. I loved that touch, since I love writing and hope to write a book! Once again, Jimmy incorporated more of me than even I had thought to do. I wanted to put it with my Boldman on my shoulder, to make it a bigger piece. It really looks like one, cohesive piece. All of my past tattoos have been very small and not had very much line work (which is the most painful part). I don't understand how people sit for multiple hours getting intense line work done. I actually had tears streaming down my face the last ten minutes of the tattoo and felt queasy for almost the whole thing. I have been on a tattoo kick in the last few years, and I told Jimmy this one had done me in for awhile. If only I would stop coming up with new ideas....

Ink Tales: Number Seven

A year later, in May of 2012, Toby and I made yet another tattoo trip to Athens with our best friends. We all four got tattooed by Jimmy that afternoon. I had been wanting a wrist tattoo for several years, but had been hesitant about getting one because of being a teacher. I knew I didn't want to have to wear a thick watch or bracelet every day to cover it up. Then, I realized that my foot tattoo shows every day (I don't wear socks with dress pants unless it's below 0 degrees) and that there was really no difference. I knew I wanted to get text on my wrist, but then the struggle came of what quote to get. There are a million song lyrics or book quotes I love...how to choose? I love the quote from "Come In Please" by my favorite (current) band, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, "Let it sunshine on my mind." (Ah yes, that is where the blog name comes from). I felt like I had settled on that quote, as it would be a physical reminder to think positively and be happy. Then, Edward Sharpe released a single "That's What's Up" if you pre-ordered their new album on iTunes, which we obviously had done. The first time Toby played me the song, I wasn't too sure about it. Then, he played it for me in the car and I really liked it. As it was playing I heard the lyrics "You be the book, I'll be the binding." and I immediately hit rewind to make sure I hadn't imagined such amazing lyrics.

I went back and forth with the two quotes for a week before deciding that, of course, I had to have "You be the book, I'll be the binding." It was perfect. Not only was it by my favorite band, and was about books (my favorite thing), and would be appropriate to have as a teacher (come on, books...English teacher), but it also had a meaning that fit Toby and I's relationship all too well. Those that know me know I can be a little difficult and selfish. I try hard to think of other's feelings and be nice...but I often think of these things too late when it comes to Toby. I felt like this was the perfect placement for such a strong reminder. I would look at it a gazillion times a day, hopefully reminding myself to be the binding of our relationship. Not that we are coming unglued, just that I should always consider him and generally be a nicer person.

Then came the all important font decision. I wanted it to be a classic book font, so I went to my bookshelf. I chose Garamond (which happens to be used in the Harry Potter books!) after seeing it. This tattoo hurt A LOT; I think more than my foot, but that was eight years ago so my memory could have dulled the pain. Anyway, I love the finished product and so did my boss (whew!).

Ink Tales: Number Six

In the spring of 2011, Toby and I once again traveled to Athens to visit our favorite tattoo artist. Communicating via email, I had sent Jimmy some long-winded and probably confusing emails about this tattoo. I wanted a tattoo of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by none other than The Beatles. It is my favorite Beatles song, but I didn't want it to be too literal. I had seen several Lucy tattoos of girls surrounded by diamonds in a cloud-filled sky. I wanted to focus on the line "the girl with kaleidoscope eyes." After making several adjustments when I arrived, Jimmy came up with the perfect drawing. I wanted the girl to kind of look like me, but child-like, as we both wanted to capture the innocence of the concept. I put her in a turquoise dress because it's my favorite color and I wanted a splash of colors to be coming out of her kaleidoscope.

I love that this tattoo is a Beatles tattoo without being too literal or conventional. I always get a lot of compliments on it and I like that it has a psychedelic feel to it without being crazy. I had a completely different idea in my head when I was explaining what I wanted to Jimmy and yet, he made the tattoo feel so much more like me. This is why we keep going back to Athens for all of our tattoos and have my whole family and now friends going to him too!

"Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she's gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah

Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredibly high

Newspaper taxies appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you're gone

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah

Picture yourself in a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds
Lucy in the sky with diamonds, ah

Ink Tales: Number Five

I wasted no time getting tattooing number five. It was also one I had wanted to get since the wedding, but hadn't done yet. Since I gave up my last name to take Toby's when we got married, I wanted to keep it in another way. I LOVED my maiden name, Boldman, and felt bad that my dad only had two girls; no one to carry on the last name. I had told my parents and sister of the plan, and they all loved the idea and wanted to get Boldman tattoos of their own. We all loved the idea of having a family tattoo, since we all have ink. The summer of 2010, my mom came for a week visit. We went down to Decorative Injections together and got ours done at the same time. Mom got hers on her forearm with two eagle feathers. I got mine done of the outer part of my shoulder; I wanted it to stick out of tank tops as much as possible. I did a loose interpretation of a turkey feather hanging off of mine because my dad is a huge turkey hunter. Later that year, my dad and sister went down together and got theirs. My sister incorporated hers into a rose piece on her back, and my dad got his with a turkey fan on his shoulder blade. This is a really meaningful tattoo for me because our family is so close; I'm glad I got to represent our last name in some way.

Ink Tales: Number Four

So my third tattoo, but fourth time (these add-ons make for confusing numbering) didn't happen for a long time. My boyfriend, Toby, had gotten his first tattoo from Jimmy at Decorative Injections and another in WAshington, D.C., making us realize how awesome Jimmy was. The butterfly revamp was in 2004, and in 2009 Toby and I got married. We had talked about getting marriage tattoos, but hadn't committed to placements. We knew we wanted to get Bobcat paw prints, as it was the mascot of Ohio University (where we had met). Finally in the spring of 2010, we took a trip down to Athens to get our tattoos. We had decided on our paw print plus a song lyric from "In My Life" by The Beatles, which is what I walked down the aisle to. Toby designed the tattoos, his used the cursive font from our wedding invitations and says "In my life I love you more." I used our other wedding font and my favorite quote, "No one compares with you."I got this one on my hip, but low enough it should be okay after a pregnancy. I have it pictured with the ribbon from my wedding bouquet. I love these tattoos because they have so much meaning behind them; I think they are a unique way to represent our love and commitment to each other without being too cheesy. Plus, hello...it's The Beatles :)

Ink Tales: Number Two (and Three-ish)

My second tattoo happened a year and a half after my first one. I was home on summer vacation between my freshman and sophomore years at Ohio University. I had two awesome best friends and had really come out of my shy, high school shell. I had discovered alcohol too, so that helped the shell disintegrate pretty fast.... I was thinking about possibly changing my major from Retail Merchandising to English (although I hadn't vocalized this yet) and I was truly happy. I have always loved butterflies, I even caught a caterpillar once and raised it until he hatched into a butterfly. I loved how they started out as such an ugly, insignificant thing, and then became something majestic and beautiful. I felt like that was what was happening to me...finally, and I wanted to represent that. So I drew a butterfly and took it to the tattoo parlor to have them perfect it (since I'm a horrendous artist). I wanted a sunrise in the wings, to represent new life. The tattoo turned out fine, the colors weren't really what I wanted and after a few months I felt like it was lacking something, but I liked it nevertheless.

That Spring, I had a new boyfriend and I'd been talking about getting another tattoo. I wanted lilacs really bad and was going to get them done when I went home. He asked why not get them done in Athens, as there were several tattoo parlors there. I decided sure, since I didn't really like the one at home anyway. We went into one (the other one had been unrecommended by his sister). I talked to Jimmy at Decorative Injections about getting lilacs on my hip. He warned me that as high as I wanted it, there was a good chance it would stretch when/if I was to get pregnant and could come back together really weird since it would be so small. I was a little disappointed, but glad he had saved me from a potentially bad tattoo since I do want kids. My boyfriend, Toby, suggested I get it added to my butterfly since I was sort of unsatisfied with it. Jimmy said that would be awesome and he could definitely add around it. When I went back to get it done, I explained the color scheme I had originally wanted. He just drew the lilacs on my foot (no stencil) and fixed the butterfly coloring. I almost passed out from the pain...why the foot twice?! However, I was so happy with the outcome and still love it today. It represents the college-Jenna quite well :) It's not as easy to see when I'm super tan...and I just returned from the beach. 

Ink Tales: Number One

I love tattoos. I hate getting tattoos, as I'm one of the biggest wimps I know. However, I love when they are done on me and I love looking at other people's tattoos (you know, if they are nice and not in unsightly places). I've let enough time past since my latest one (5 weeks?) to be able to talk about the topic again, as this one was the most painful one yet. I thought I'd share each one of my tattoos and the story behind it, along with a tattoo photo session!

The first tattoo I got was a Christmas present from my parents when I was 17. I had begged for months to get one before I turned 18 because my sister had gotten hers for her 18th birthday, which was in February. Thus, she got to have her tattoo while in high school. I, on the other hand, would not turn 18 until after graduation...which was obviously not fair. So after months of presenting my argument (complete with charts and graphs), on Christmas morning I opened up a small package. Inside was one of my documents I had created with a big, red "Santa Approved" written across the top. A few weeks later, I was sitting in a tattoo parlor...about to feel the most intense pain I'd ever had. So...I got a tramp stamp of shooting stars and the word "Dream". I would like to make a disclaimer that the lower back tattoo had not reached it's height of popularity and nobody had heard the word "tramp stamp" back then. I drew the design myself (I know it's not a spectacular achievement, given the simplicity) and I wanted to remind myself as I started off on a new chapter of my life after high school to follow my dreams. At this time, those dreams included going to Bowling Green State University to study Fashion Merchandising (hence the fabrics in the picture)...although both of those things ended up changing, I still felt like it was important to do what I wanted to do and not be afraid of changing.

Although now this is my least favorite tattoo, I still love it because it represents the high school Jenna, not only in aesthetics (I used to be obsessed with stars), but also in concept. I used to daydream constantly about what my life would be like after high school...I wanted to be a cool college girl who had lots of friends and parties to go to, then grow up and be a successful career woman in NYC, get married to an architect at 28, and have two kids when I was 30 and 32. Although not all of these things went according to 17-year-old-Jenna's plans, I like to have something to remind me of that girl!

Dream