Welcome to Be Our Tattooed Guest, an original feature here on Beauty and the Bookshelf! This feature is all about tattoos of the literary, poetic, and bookish variety, and people showing them off! To learn more about Be Our Tattooed Guest, please go here.
Remember that guy who asked us how a raven is like a desk but never gave us the answer? I don't have it either. But I do have a tattooed guest who just happens to have gotten a tattoo of said guy!
Stacee
Design: Edgar Allan Poe.
Story: This tattoo was a total spur of the moment thing for me. Not to say that all of my many, many {seriously, MANY} tattoos have a meaning or story past "OMG I NEED A NEW TATTOO." However, there is a bit of a back story... I'll try to condense it.
We were with our regular artist for over 8 years. Chad did 98% of the tattoos I currently have. Unfortunately, he passed away unexpectedly in 2011. We tried staying with an artist who worked for Chad. We were familiar him and he actually ended up buying Chad's shop, but it wasn't the same. We were at a total loss for where to go.
Fast forward two very long years of not getting any work done. That might not sound like a lot to you, but we were going to see Chad every 8 weeks or so. I told you, I have many tattoos.
We were at the coffee shop that used to be inside of Mysterious Galaxy in Redondo Beach and struck up a conversation with one of the employees there. He had just gotten some work done and showed us the portfolio of his artist, Todd. We ended up meeting Todd later that afternoon and found him to be really compatible with us. The downside was that his shop was in San Pedro {about 2 hours north of us, depending on traffic}.
Todd worked out an awesome deal with us. Because we were driving so far, we did flat rate sessions instead of an hourly rate. He did my River Song/Doctor Who tattoo {that took 15+ hours} and a piece for Hubs. The problem we were having was that it was just too far to go for some of the smaller pieces we wanted to get. Not everything was going to be $300 and 5 hours...
Enter in Hubs' co-worker. She was getting some work done from a new artist looking to build up his portfolio and wanted to know if we wanted to come with. Ramon was doing a special on Day of the Dead people by Jose Pulido: up to 3" for $10.
I MEAN I HAD TO GET ONE, RIGHT?
I've always wanted a sugar skull, so this was really exciting. I looked up Jose's work and almost died when I saw Edgar Allan Poe. I hesitated for a minute when I saw Shakespeare, but Edgar was who I went with.
The entire tattoo took him about 45 minutes and I still can't get over the amount of detail that is in it. Not only did Hubs and I get awesome new tattoos {he got Johnny Cash}, I think we found a new artist.
Thanks for sharing your tattoo and being our tattooed guest, Stacee!
Do you have a tattoo of the bookish, literary, or poetic variety? (Basically, if it has anything whatsoever to do with books, it works!) Would you like to be our tattooed guest? We'd love to have you! All you have to do is fill out this form and then you're on the guest list!
Ooh, I remembering seeing this tattoo on Stacee's instagram and absolutely falling in love with it - and it sounds as though you and your husband got a fantastic deal - any way we can see his Johnny Cash one? I love tattoos, but only coming of legal age to get a tattoo here in Australia 5 months ago, I haven't gotten one yet...I do have several planned out though, and as soon as I get my courage up, I'm booking it in! My first tattoo is a quote from Harry Potter. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great idea for a feature! I love literary tattoos, and this Poe design is amazing! I also love how it's not just a post of the picture but also the whole story behind it :)
ReplyDeleteI've been planning a literary tattoo of my own and I need to contact the studio where I'd like to get it soon. It's been three years since I got my first tattoo, and I miss the feeling and the humming of the needle.