Inspiration comes from the strangest of places.
I was flicking through Inked Australia/NZ Inked Girls Issue 2 (which came packaged with Issue 13 of Inked Australia/NZ. There’s only 900 special packs out there. Be quick and get hunting before they’re all gone) and within seconds had developed the concept for my next tattoo.
When I got my thigh piece from Arn Lyons I had originally wanted the lamp to be candle lit. As per usual, I wanted too many elements in the one piece and the candle idea was taken off the table.
There’s something about candles that I’ve always loved. The flickering of light in a darkened room is both spooky and romantic.
I noticed that one of the girls in Inked Girls Issue 2 has a candle tattooed on her. From there the ideas spiralled out of control.
A candle > A candle below clouds, rain and lightning > A girl holding a candle, standing in the rain > A girl holding an umbrella, with rain and lightning coming from within the umbrella
Once again the candle didn’t make the cut. One day I’ll find a place for it.
I want the girl to be wearing a blue dress, with dark hair and grey eyes. It will be a representation of me and a family joke.
In my family we refer to the last born children as the “Blue Girls”. My mother was the last of three children, and my cousin and I both being the second of two children. We always felt as though we got the short end of the stick. Our older brothers or sisters got more attention, more gifts and more love. This is probably the case in many families. It was never anything to an extreme extent, but we all seemed to notice the pattern.
This idea also relates back to one of my favourite Phil Collins songs, “I Wish It Would Rain Down”, although I’m not sure if I want to include the song title in some sort of banner
I guess this tattoo will have some other significance to my teenage years and no matter how much I removed myself from a situation, to protect myself, the pain still managed to find its way to me.
The strange thing is that getting all these tattoos is coming at one of the happiest periods in my life. I’ve overcome a lot of the troubles and pain that I had in my life. These are an expression of my past, how it will always be with me, but that I’m strong enough now to move on from it.
It’s still early planning, but I think I may have found an artist that I want to do my Phil Collins tattoo, as part of my bucket list. He’s one of the international artists who will be at Crazy A.I.T.S in Melbourne later this year. I’ve sent an email to him, so now I just have to wait to hear the (hopefully) good news. I’m thinking of possibly getting Jack Nicholson and Stevie Nicks tattooed alongside him, but we’ll see what happens.
Modern Medusa 