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